Fair Use

Fair use is a legal doctrine that allows for the limited reuse of others’ copyrighted content.

You can reuse small amounts of content, such as quotes, or heavily adapted materials, like figures or tables, without the need for permission under fair use.

The following can be considered fair use and does not require permission:

  • Short quotes of up to 50 words in length.
    • You cannot use song lyrics or poems.
    • Activity and exercise instructions are not considered quotes.
  • Small amounts of heavily adapted content (single figures and tables)
    • Content must adapted by significantly adding to the asset, further building upon the asset, or using the asset in a completely new manner.
      • Critique, review, and further elaboration of the material are considered to be adding to the material.
    • Deletions or removing elements from the content is not considered fair use.
    • Reformatting the material (changing colors, redrawing elements, simple rearrangement, or font changes) without further adapting it is not considered fair use.

When using content under fair use, you must keep the following limitations in mind:

  • Fair use only applies to works that originally published in the U.S.
  • Fair use only covers a work's copyright, it does not extend to any privacy or personal rights an individual associated with the work may have.

 Additional Concept Framework

  • The fair use doctrine is contained within the United States Copyright Act (Title 17, Chapter 1, § 107).
  • The law provides a structure for determining whether a use is "fair," as detailed below.
    • Fair use is evaluated based on a set of four factors.
    • No single factor is considered more important than the other.
    • One factor, or any combination of them, can change the assessment.
  • The four factors to be considered are:
    • What is the purpose and character of your use?
      • Is the new use commercial in nature?
        • Fair use is more likely for non-commercial uses. Despite being an academic publisher, use in a Sage product would be considered commercial.
      • Has the original work been sufficiently transformed?
        •     ​​​​​​​Adding commentary, analysis, or criticism to the original work.
        •     Providing new insight into the original work.
        •     Building upon or extending the original work.
        •     Adding new meaning to the original work.
        •     Providing a different purpose or manner to the original work.
    • What is the nature of the original work?
      • Fair use is more frequently found if the original work is factual rather than creative or artistic.
      • Fair use is more frequently found if the original work is published rather than unpublished because the law supports an author's right to control the first publication of his/her work.
    • What amount and substantiality of the original work is being used?
      • Does the new work only use the portion of the original work that is necessary to make your point?
        • Fair use is more frequently found when only what is needed of the original work is used.
      • Does the portion of the original work that is being used constitute the “heart” of the original work?
        • Even when only a small portion of the original work is used, if it is the most important portion of the work, the use is less likely to be considered fair.
    • Would your work serve as a substitute for the original work?
      • ​​​​​​​Fair use is more frequently found if the new work will not compete with or negatively affect the original work in the existing or future market.