Under U.S. law, the fair use doctrine entitles users to reproduce, modify, distribute, and publicly perform or display copyrighted works without permission under certain circumstances.

Whether a use is fair depends on four factors, outlined in 17 U.S.C. § 107. When a use is for educational purposes, that improves the fair use analysis, but it doesn't make the use automatically fair. Our office maintains a page on fair use that can help you analyze your use. Keep in mind that the factors and subfactors within the analysis can weigh against each other. A use can be fair even if some of the factors or subfactors weigh against fair use.

A few excellent resources on fair use are:

• Fair Use in Seven Words, a short video from the University of Virginia Library
• Index of Fair Use Cases, from the U.S. Copyright Office
• Codes of Best Practices in Fair Use, from the Center for Media and Social Impact at American University