Are There Guidelines for Determining Fair Use?
Faced with the uncertainty of judicially-applied fair use factors, those in the publishing and education fields have attempted to establish guidelines for engaging in permissible copying for educational purposes. Unfortunately, not all proposed guidelines were ultimately approved. Moreover, approved guidelines attempted to set minimums as to permissible copying. Educators were often displeased with restrictions on scope of copying and duration for retaining copies. Of course, engaging in copying that goes beyond the minimums could still constitute fair use. There is always the risk, however, that the court in an infringement suit could disagree with what you consider to be fair use. Other institutions, like the University of Texas, have offered rules of thumb for fair use copying for educational purposes: One article from a journal issue One chapter or other small part from a book A few charts, graphs, illustrations or photos Amounts in excess of these guidelines would require a full f
