---------------------------------------------------------- Permission is granted for
below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and byline, copyright, and resource box below is included. ----------------------------------------------------------Go Ahead And Use That Copyrighted Material, It's Fair Use!
Copyright(c)2003 Stephen Bucaro
Most people would like to use a picture or some textual information they found on Web, but they assume that copyright law prevents them from doing so. The copyright law provides a "fair use" exception that permits you to legally use copyrighted material for many purposes.
You can legally use copyrighted music, pictures, and textual information that you find on Web for purposes such as critical review, news reporting, teaching or training materials, or a research report. This type of use is not a copyright infringement.
Copyright law does not precisely define fair use. Determination of whether a use is fair use is made on a case-by-case basis, determined by following factors:
* The purpose and character of use.
Examples of fair use are quoting passages for a critical review, a news report, a parody or satire, to illustrate a lesson, or a research report.
Fair use is very liberal for non-profit educational purposes. But using copyrighted material in for-profit training materials is much more restricted. In this case, you need to get permission to use material from copyright owner.
The use of a copyrighted character in a parody of performance that character appears in is fair use. Don't use a copyrighted character to parody a different topic.
* The nature of copyrighted material.
Fair use is very liberal when quoting factual material in editorials, news reports, and research reports. Using quotes from non-fictional or creative material is much more restricted. In that case, stick to short quotes for critical review, or get permission to use material from copyright owner.
* The portion used in relation to material as a whole.
Use of only a small portion of a copyrighted work for purposes mentioned above is usually fair use. The part of material you use should also be only a small portion of new work you are creating.
Make sure that small portion that you are using is not most significant part of copyrighted material. Even though part you use may be only a small portion of material, if it is heart of work, that would be infringement. There is no clearly defined definition as to what portion of a work use of is infringement.
* The effect on value of copyrighted work.
Make sure that part of work you use does not make your new work substitutable for copyrighted work. If so, that is an infringement because it has reduced marketability of copyrighted work.
=> Using Pictures of People
Use of a person's picture in a news story is fair use. You can use person's picture even if that person has only a minimal connection to news story. You can use a person's picture in an article on a subject of general public interest.
