Fair Use

According to Thompson, in the article Copyright 101, fair use is the idea that, ‘copyrighted work can be used or copied for educational purposes as long as the use is not solely a substitute for purchasing work’. An example of fair use is making multiple copies for classroom use. Many times in court to determine if material being used is copyright infringement or fair use the court will analyze it using four factors: 1. The purpose of the use 2. The nature of the work 3. The amount of work used 4. The effect on the use on the market or potential income for the work Two examples of how fair use applies to education is if one, the teacher distributes multiple copies of an article for classroom use, and two if an administrator shows a video for instructional purposes. If the teacher makes copies of the entire textbook to distribute during class to save the students money, this is not an example of fair use because it is being used as a substitute for purchasing work.