| Question: What defenses are there to copyright infringement?
Answer:
The primary defense to copyright infringement is "fair use." 17
U.S.C. ?107. The fair use doctrine allows the reproduction and
use of work, notwithstanding the rightsof the author (17
U.S.C. ?? 106 and 106A),
for limited purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching,
scholarship, and research. Fair use may be described as the privilege to
use the copyrighted material in a reasonable manner without the owner's
consent. In deciding whether a copier's actions were fair, judges will consider
1. the purpose and character of the copying (certain types of educational
copying is allowed)
2. the nature of the original (originals made for commercial reasons are
less protected from copying than their purely artistic counterparts)
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion copied (one may not copy
the "heart" of a work without the author's permission); and
4. the effect that such copying may have on the market for the original
(copying may be permitted if it is unlikely to cause economic harm the original
author).
Examples of activities that may be excused as fair use include: distributing
copies of a section of an article in class for educational purposes; providing
a quotation in a book review; and imitating a work for the purpose of parody
or social commentary.
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