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.
For help in making a fair use evaluation, please see the links below. The Columbia checklist is a printable PDF, while the American Library Association's Evaluator walks you through creating a fair use document for your records. In the event of a lawsuit, having such a document may help you prove you made a good faith effort to comply with the fair use clause of U.S. Copyright Law.
Using the American Library Association Fair Use Evaluator tool, I completed the following analysis using the language they provided and adding in additional information I felt was important. Please note that this document is offered as an example only.
Check out the full text of my evaluation here:
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.
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