Fair use is "a legal doctrine that portions of copyrighted materials may be used without permission of the copyright owner provided the use is fair and reasonable, does not substantially impair the value of the materials, and does not curtail the profits reasonably expected by the owner." (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

• Copying for classroom use:  An instructor who wishes to make copies from various sources must do a fair use analysis of each excerpt; for books, copying a chapter from a book generally meets fair use criteria. (more) 

• Copying for coursepacks:  An instructor may make copies from various sources and distribute them as a print or electronic coursepack if the use of each excerpt complies with fair use. (more)

• Copying out-of-print books for files:  If a book is no longer in a print, an instructor may make a copy for his/her files. (more)

• Quoting from published materials:  An instructor may quote copyrighted materials in research if the use can be considered to be for creative, comment, or criticism purposes. (more)

• Posting on the Web:  An instructor can post a short portion of a book, such as a chapter, a restricted Web page (such as a WorldClassRoom page). (more)

• Sharing electronic subscriptions:  An instructor who has a subscription to an online journal and wishes to forward articles to colleagues should check the subscription license.  Some publishers only allow transfer of hard copies to non-subscribers. (more)

• Using web pages:  An instructor or student may incorporate materials found on the Internet into papers, projects, coursepacks, etc., if certain guidelines are followed. Typically, it is fine to link to others' Web sites, but if excerpts from Web pages are used, one must do a fair use analysis of each excerpt. (more)

Please visit our Copyright and Fair Use Research Guide for more information.