Fair Use

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Fair Use

"Fair use" in the United States is doctrinated on the foundation of free speech rights which is defined and regulated per the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It refers to copyright laws, which allow the lawful, non-licensed reference, or incorperated copyright works from someone elses work only within the boundries of a "four-factor balancing test." These regualtions are specific to the U.S., and are permitted by common law jurisdictions.

In addition to copyright laws, trademark law include a "fair use" defense for users, differentiating the doctrines. One only needs to determine if the inclusion of another's work in a specific use is "fair use" which includes: the intension and characteristics of the use, whether for commercial use or nonprofit educational purposes, the type of the work that has been copyrighted, and the portion of the work to its entirety used in relation to the specific copyrighted material, and the consequences inposed on the potential market or market value of the specified copyrighted work. Copyright laws do not descriminate the unpublished, it does not matter when one uses another's work, and still applies to the laws already mentioned.

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