Fair Use

 TechTeacher 

October 15th, 2022

Fair Use 

By: Brisa Willis 

Fair Use:

    To understand the concept of fair use, we must first understand what copyright means. When an individual creates something such as a drawing, music lyrics, a book, etc., they have legal rights to their creations. To ensure that others are not claiming someone else's work as their own, copyright laws have been implemented. Specific expectations, such as fair use, have been put in place to possibly prevent one from getting fined for copyrighting. If someone gets accused of copyright, they could defend themselves through fair use. What makes fair use complicated is that one has to go through a judge, who will then determine if what they were doing was copyrighting or was being used fairly. To determine if the use of the material was fair or copyrighted, four factors are taken into consideration (Copyright | Columbia University in the City of New York, n.d.)...
  1.  The Purpose and Character of the Use: One of the first things a judge will consider is how the materials were being used. Judges will ask themselves if the materials were being used for educational purposes or for fun. It has been found that materials being used for educational, noncommercial, and transformative purposes are often more favored (Office, n.d.).
  2.  The Nature of the Copyrighted Work: A judge will also consider the purpose of the original work.   Fictional pieces have stronger copyright protection because fictional pieces have more imagination that is unique to the original author. Pieces that are considered informational, on the other hand, don't have as much protection from copyright because nonfiction pieces are factual.
  3.  The amount of or Sustainability of the Portion Used: According to Office (n.d.), a judge will take into consideration two things: the amount used and the quality of what was used. When looking at the amount used, the judge will consider how much time from the original was really used by the plaintiff. For example, if one were to use 10 seconds from a 60-minute video then it would be considered fair use. When examining the quality of what was used, judges are looking at if the plaintiff used the most important parts of the film such as spoiler alerts (CrashCourse, 2015). 
  4.  The Effect of Use on the Potential Market for or Value of the Work: Furthermore, a judge will look at if how one used others' work is depriving the original owners of making a profit off of their own work.  
While the four factors provided above are taken into consideration, there is no rule that a judge has to only consider those four things. What makes fair use tricky is the fact that a judge can regard other things on top of the four listed above, if they would like to. 

Fair Use and Education: 
    Because many educators use materials from others for educational purposes, if they were to be accused of copyright because they are using the material for educational purposes, fair use would be upheld and it would be said that they are not copyrighting. 

Fair Use and Work for Hire: 
    The concept of work for hire is that there is an agreement between a company and an individual, stating that after the service is completed, the designer will be granted the rights to their work. For the individual to receive credit for their work and be titled as the creator, the agreement must be put in place before the work starts. If an agreement is not signed before the work begins, the company will be titled as the creator. Work is only deemed as work for hire under two circumstances according to Work for Hire (n.d.)
  1. Work has been completed by the employee within their "scope of employment"(Work for Hire, n.d.-b).
  2. The work made is being used to contribute and/or support a collective work. 

Examples of Fair Use: 
          When thinking about fair use, one example that comes to mind is Crash course. If you have ever seen Crash course, you know that they use clips from movies throughout their videos, so how are they not getting fined? Well, if you look at the factors that are taken into consideration, the clips that Crash course implements in their videos, check off the right boxes. Crash course integrates short clips from movies that don't spoil any part of the movie, they use the clips for educational purposes, and they are not depriving the director of the movie of making money. Another example of fair use in mediated communication for learning is the use of Khan Academy. Khan Academy is a popular platform used by many educators and is integrated into instruction. Educators can use Khan Academy without getting fined for copyright because the way Khan Academy is being integrated is for educational purposes. Educators use Khan Academy to enhance the learning of their students. 


References: 

Copyright | Columbia University in the City of New York. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.columbia.edu/content/copyright

CrashCourse. (2015, May 7). Copyright, Exceptions, and Fair Use: Crash Course Intellectual Property #3 [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_9O8J9skL0 

Office, C. U. S. (n.d.). U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/

work for hire. (n.d.). LII / Legal Information Institute. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/work_for_hire

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