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Undergraduate Resources

 

Fair Use Policies

The Fair Use provision is in the Copyright Act and is one of the most important limits to copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use, the factors to be considered shall include:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
   
   The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

Portion Limitations

 

Educators
May use their projects for teaching, for a period of up to two years after the first instructional use with a class.

Instructional use beyond that time period requires permission for each copyrighted portion incorporated in the production.

Students
In the course for which the project was created
In their own portfolios as examples of their academic work.

Portion Limitations by Media Type

Music, Lyrics, and Music Video
Up to 10% but no more than 30 seconds from any single musical work
Any alterations shall not change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work.

Motion Media
Up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less, of a single copyrighted motion media work.

Text Material
Up to 10% or 1000 words, whichever is less, of a single copyrighted work of text.

Text Material - Poems
Less than 250 words:
Entire poem.
No more than three poems by one poet.
Or five poems by different poets from any single anthology.
More than 250 words:
Up to 250 words.
No more than three excerpts by a single poet.
Or five poems by different poets from any single anthology.

Illustrations and Photographs

(Reproduction or incorporation of this media type is more difficult to define with regard to fair use because fair use usually precludes the use of the entire work.)
A photograph or illustration may be used in its entirety.

No more than five images by an artist or photographer.

Not more than 10% or 15 images, whichever is less, from a single published collected work.

 

Numerical Data Sets

Up to 10% or 2500 fields or cell entries, whichever is less, from a database or data table.

A field entry is a specific item of information in a record of a database.

A cell entry is the intersection of a column and a row on a spreadsheet.

 

Copying and Distribution Limitations

Include the original, only a limited number if copies may be made of a project.

No more than two use copies, one of which may be placed on reserve.

An additional copy for preservation to be used or copied only to replace a use copy that has been lost, stolen, or damaged.