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ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: FAIR USE

WHAT IS FAIR USE?

Song Lyrics in Fiction and the Fair Use Doctrine ยป dorian box The Copyright Act gives the owner of a copyright the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute their work. One exception to this exclusive right is called "the fair use exception." 

The fair use exception permits the reproduction of a portion of a copyrighted work without the copyright owner's permission, under certain circumstances.

This is a vitally important exception for education, as it enables students, scholars, and critics to use and reference copyrighted works in their own scholarship, teaching, and critiques.

What do you mean by Fair Use under the Indian Copyright Act?

Under Indian regime legal framework being the Copyright Act, 1957, section 52 lays down certain acts or works that cannot be considered as an infringement of copyright namely fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work not being a computer program for the purposes of-

  • fair dealing with any work, not being a computer programme, for the purposes of—
    (i) “private or personal use, including research;
    (ii) criticism or review, whether of that work or of any other work;
    (iii) the reporting of current events and current affairs, including the reporting of a lecture delivered in public.
  • the transient or incidental storage of a work or performance purely in the technical process of electronic transmission or communication to the public;
  • transient or incidental storage of a work or performance for the purpose of providing electronic links, access or integration, where such links, access or integration has not been expressly prohibited by the right holder, unless the person responsible is aware or has reasonable grounds for believing that such storage is of an infringing copy:
  •  the reproduction of any work for the purpose of a judicial proceeding or for the purpose of a report of a judicial proceeding;

SOURCE: Khan, U. A. (2020, August 9). Fair use law in India under Copyright Act. iPleaders

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON FAIR USE CLICK HERE:-Exceptions To Infringement Under Copyright Act, 1957

FAIR USE EVALUATION

SOURCE:- "WHAT IS FAIR USE?" DORI EISENSTAT, www.dorieisenstat.com/graphics.html.

There's no one right answer as to what constitutes a fair use of a particular copyrighted work. The answer varies from situation to situation.

Four factors are considered in all fair use evaluations. They are:

  • Purpose & character
    • Purpose: Is the copyrighted material being used for commercial or nonprofit educational purposes? Fair use favors educational purposes, but commercial entities can also take advantage of fair use
    • Character: Is the use of the copyrighted material transformative? (i.e. subjected to scholarly analysis, remixed, parodies, etc.)
  • Nature of the work
    • Has the work been previously published? Is the work primarily factual or creative in nature? Is this work created and/or marketed as a textbook or an educational consumable (i.e. workbook, etc.)?
  • Amount
    • How much of the work is being used? How important is the portion being used? If you are using the whole work, is it clear that no less than the whole work will be effective (i.e. photograph, poem, etc.)?
  • Effect 
    • Is the work in-print? Is it available licensed elsewhere? Is there a market for the work? Can you identify the copyright holder? Did the copyright holder respond to a request for permission? Did you acquire this copy legally? Will you be able to attribute the original author?

These four factors are not meant to be exclusive and must be examined together. The statute does not indicate how much weight is to be accorded each factor, therefore, it is advisable to treat the four factors equally.

 

SOURCE: BUTLER UNIVERSITY LIBGUIDE PAGE ON FAIR USE.

FAIR USE

It's more likely to be fair use if ...