Fair Use

Contents

• Analysis of fair Use
• Commentary and criticism Of Fair use
• Fair use defense-parody
• Conclusion

The copyright owner has the right to reproduce and further authorize others to reproduce the work in copies or records done with phones. According to sections 107 through 120 of the copyright act (title 17, U.S. Code) his right is basically meant to certain limitations.

Generally, a fair can be termed as copying of a copyrighted material that is performed for a limited and purpose, like commenting upon or criticizing or having parody a copyrighted work. These uses can be performed without any permission from the copyright owner. Fair use works as a defense system against any kind of copyright infringement claim. If your use qualifies as ‘fair use’, then it would not be considered as an infringement.

Analysis of fair Use

Most of the fair use analysis falls into two categories:

 (1) commentary and criticism or

 (2) parody

Commentary and Criticism of fair use

If you are commenting upon or criticizing a copyrighted work—like writing a book review—The fair use principles allow you to reproduce some of the work. Some examples of commentary and criticism are-

• quoting a few lines from a song in a music review
• summarizing and quoting from a medical article on any disease in a news report
• copying a few paragraphs from a news article for teaching purpose by a teacher or student in a lesson
• copying a part of a magazine article with sports illustrations for use in any related court case.​​​​​​​

Fair use defense: Parody

A parody can be told as a work that ridicules another and usually well-known work by imitating it comically. Judges understand that the parody demands some taking from the original work being parodied by its nature. Unlike the other forms of fair use, fairly extensive use of the original work is allowed in a parody to “conjure up” the original.

Conclusion

Finally, we can say that Fair use is a doctrine mentioned in the law of the United States. It permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to acquire permission from the copyright protection holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright the intended one to balance out the interests of the copyright holders with the public interests in the distribution and use of the creative works after allowing as a defense to copyright infringement claims certain limited uses that might be considered an infringement.

Additional resources

• Protection of copyright
• Registering a work to claim copyright
• Copyright Act of 1957
• Copyright at a glance