Fair Use

Fair use is another limitation on your rights in your music. But it is not as well defined as the limitations and exemptions discussed in earlier sections. Its purpose is to ensure that a copyright owner’s exclusive bundle of rights will not hinder the very creativity that the law was designed to foster. The doctrine recognizes that new works draw inspiration from older works and that productive use of older works promotes the progress of science, the arts, and literature. Fair use permits use of copyrighted material without permission where use is in the public interest. The law specifically mentions criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research as exemplary fair uses, but there is no clear-cut-rule. Fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis. An activity may qualify in one instance as fair use, while it would be an infringing activity in another context.

The law sets out four factors to be used in determining whether a particular use is fair.