Fair Use on the Internet I. Introduction. Copyright owners enjoy exclusive rights over the use of their protected work, but not without certain exceptions.1 These rights include the right to reproduce and distribute copies, prepare derivative works, and publicly perform and display the work.2 The unauthorized use of copyrighted material constitutes a infringement of these rights, unless the use is excused by a statutory exception. “Fair use,” one of these exceptions, is designed to permit the use of copyrighted works by the public

“for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, . . . scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web

Fair Use on the Internet

May 21, 2002
Christopher Alan Jennings
Legislative Attorney
American Law Division

http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL31423.pdf

Copyright and Fair Use

A healthy copyright system must balance the need to provide strong economic incentives through exclusive rights with the need to protect important public interests like free speech and expression. Fair use is foundational to that balance. It's role is to prevent copyright from stifling the creativity it is supposed to foster, and from imposing other burdens that would inhibit rather than promote the creation and spread of knowledge and learning.

The Fair Use Project (FUP) was founded in 2006 to provide legal support to a range of projects designed to clarify, and extend, the boundaries of fair use in order to enhance creative freedom and protect important public rights. It is the only organization in the country dedicated specifically to providing free and comprehensive legal representation to authors, filmmakers, artists, musicians and other content creators who face unmerited copyright claims, or other improper restrictions on their expressive interests. The FUP has litigated important cases across the country, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, and worked with scores of filmmakers and other content creators to secure the unimpeded release of their work

The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School is a leader in the Internet and other emerging technologies.

http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/focus-areas/copyright-and-fair-use

more