What is Fair Use?
Fair use is the right given in U.S. copyright law to use copyrighted material without payment or permission, under some circumstances. A long pattern of judicial decisions applying Supreme Court precedent shows that an assessment of fair use typically depends on the answers to two questions:
- Is the use transformative—is the purpose for which preexisting copyrighted material is reused different from that for which it was originally created?
- Is the amount of material used appropriate to the purpose of the new use?
If so, it is likely that fair use applies. Our Codes of Best Practices describe ways in which fair use principles can be used in common recurring contexts.
