What does “fair use” mean in terms of copyright?
“Fair use” is an affirmative defense to a claim of infringement. Fair use is codified in Section 107 of the Copyright Act and is ultimately determined by a court. Generally speaking, news media, educators, nonprofit organizations, researchers and anyone else making use of copyrighted materials without permission for certain limited purposes, such as commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education are making “fair use” of such materials and will have an affirmative defense to any claim of infringement from the owner of the copyrighted materials. Section 107 defines “fair use” as the balancing of a number of factors, four of which are included as examples in the text of Section 107 of the Copyright Act.
