Fair Use Resource
Kim Gainer
U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index at http://copyright.gov/fair-use/
Welcome to the U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index. This Fair Use Index is a project undertaken by the Office of the Register in support of the 2013 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement of the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC). Fair use is a longstanding and vital aspect of American copyright law. The goal of the Index is to make the principles and application of fair use more accessible and understandable to the public by presenting a searchable database of court opinions, including by category and type of use (e.g., music, internet/digitization, parody).
The Fair Use Index tracks a variety of judicial decisions to help both lawyers and non-lawyers better understand the types of uses courts have previously determined to be fair—or not fair. The decisions span multiple federal jurisdictions, including the U.S. Supreme Court, circuit courts of appeal, and district courts. Please note that while the Index incorporates a broad selection of cases, it does not include all judicial opinions on fair use. The Copyright Office will update and expand the Index periodically.
The Fair Use Index is designed to be user-friendly. For each decision, we have provided a brief summary of the facts, the relevant question(s) presented, and the court’s determination as to whether the contested use was fair. You may browse all of the cases, search for cases involving specific subject matter or categories of work, or review cases from specific courts. The Index ordinarily will reflect only the highest court decision issued in a case. It does not include the court opinions themselves. We have provided the full legal citation, however, allowing those who wish to read the actual decisions to access them through free online resources (such as Google Scholar and Justia), commercial databases (such as Westlaw and LEXIS), or the federal courts’ PACER electronic filing system, available at www.pacer.gov.
Stedman, Kyle D
Wow! Super cool and useful. I’ll be making entire lessons revolve around this resource.
Here’s my dream, though: since this is a SELECTION of cases, I’d love to know how they selected, and if there’s a subtle “be careful” message in the cases they chose. I only say that because I searched for music cases, and of the 17 cases summarized, 12 are labeled “fair use not found.” Maybe that’s because cases that really make it to the courts about music tend to go that way?
Or maybe the label is too simplistic (though useful as a quick summary), since it could be labeled “fair use not found” even if there were significant factors that made it ALMOST lean toward fair.
I’m just thinking out loud here. Overall: cool!
k
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