What is Fair Use

by batboy

If you have been around OEP (Open Encyclopedia Project) for any length of time you may have heard the word ‘Fair Use’ used a few times. Information on Open-Site's policy concerning 'Fair Use' can be found at http://open-site.org/Test/Help/Copyright/Fair_Use/.

‘Fair Use’ is a law enacted by the United States Congress that allows individuals and organizations to reprint portions of copyrighted work without the copyright holder's permission. The law is specific in when 'Fair Use' can be utilized to copy somebody else's writing. 'Fair Use' can be categorized into the following instances: criticism; comment; news reporting; teaching; scholarship; and research. At OEP, we are allowed to use other copyrighted material as a teaching or research tool.

‘Fair Use’ allows us to use copyrighted works by others but it does not allow us to infringe upon the value of the reference source. You must be careful not to devalue the copyright of the reference material. If we print too much of a source, the reader may not want to read the original source of the material. This in turn would cause their source to become unread and create a possible loss of income or notoriety for the creators of the reference source.

How much is too much?

There is no exact formula in determining how much is too much. Anything more than a paragraph from a reference source might be considered too much. The amount that can be legally copied is mostly common sense. If there is a difference in opinion between the creator of the work and the person copying the writing, it may end up in court. A good rule of thumb is to always limit the amount that you copy to less than a hundred words or no more than 10% of the total content of the page, whichever is less.

For instance, if you copy 100 words from a source and there is a total of 100 words in the source, then you have taken too much and might be subject to liability. If you can limit your usage to less than 10 words (equal to 10%) from this document, then you are more likely to be seen by a court to have complied with 'Fair Use'. As with all rules, there are always exceptions. Please use discretion when using the 100/10 rule of thumb. The most important point to remember is to not devalue the reference source.

Myths

Nobody is going to sue me because Open-Site is responsible for my submission. As the submitting editor you are ultimately accepting responsibility for the work you submit. According to the editorial guidelines, "You ... warrant that you have all rights necessary to authorize the distribution and redistribution of any material you have submitted or will submit for inclusion or use in the Open Site. "

This is a nonprofit site. OEP has no money and I know that I don't have money either. Why would anyone bother to sue me. You might think that because Open-Site is a nonprofit organization and you receive no money from your writings that there is no way anybody would sue you because of the lack of money flow. It is important to remember that a copyright violation can be judged against you even if you have no money. Your ability to pay rarely comes into play in a court of law. (1) Many times a person/organization will sue another to set an example so that it might detour others from copying their material.

Play it safe

The best thing to do is always play it safe and watch how much you take from other web site. If the information you are wanting to copy is common knowledge, just rewrite the information and you will not have to give credit to the reference source. Rewriting common knowledge is the preferred method of adding data to Open-Site. Using too much of a reference source could open you to personal liability that might cause you to sell the house and borrow against the college fund to pay off a judgment against you. "Fair Use' infringements also gives Open-Site a bad reputation.

Since you are accepting responsibility for all work you submit, you are responsible for seeing that all submissions comply with the copyright law. This may involve doing additional research on copyright law and verifying the information presented or omitted here. Nothing in this document should be construed as giving legal advice or to act as a defense in case of a lawsuit.

References:

(1) © 1999-2004 Medical Library Association

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107