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Fair Use In The Electronic Age: Serving The Public Interest
The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the
labor of authors, but "[t]o promote the Progress of
Science and useful Arts." To this end, copyright assures
authors the right to their original expression, but encourages
others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed
by a work. This result is neither unfair nor unfortunate. It
is the means by which copyright advances the progress of
science and art.
-- Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (Feist Publications, Inc. v.
Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 US 340, 349(1991)
The genius of United States copyright law is that, in
conformance with its constitutional foundation, it balances the
intellectual property interests of authors, publishers and
copyright owners with society's need for the free exchange of
ideas. Taken together, fair use and other public rights to
utilize copyrighted works, as confirmed in the Copyright Act of
1976, constitute indispensable legal doctrines for promoting the
dissemination of knowledge, while ensuring authors, publishers
and copyright owners appropriate protection of their creative
works and economic investments.
The fair use provision of the Copyright Act allows
reproduction and other uses of copyrighted works under certain
conditions for purposes such as criticism, comment, news
reporting, teaching(including multiple copies for classroom
use), scholarship or research. Additional provisions of the law
allow uses specifically permitted by Congress to further
educational and library activities. The preservation and
continuation of these balanced rights in an electronic
environment as well as in traditional formats are essential to
the free flow of information and to the development of an
information infrastructure that serves the public interest.
It follows that the benefits of the new technologies should
flow to the public as well as to copyright proprietors. As more
information becomes available only in electronic formats, the
public's legitimate right to use copyrighted material must be
protected. In order for copyright to truly serve its purpose of
"promoting progress," the public's right of fair use
must continue in the electronic era, and these lawful uses of
copyrighted works must be allowed without individual transaction
fees.
Without infringing copyright, the public has a right to
expect:
- to read, listen to, or view publicly marketed copyrighted
material privately, on site or remotely;
- to browse through publicly marketed copyrighted material;
- to experiment with variations of copyrighted material for
fair use purposes, while preserving the integrity of the
original;
- to make or have made for them a first generation copy for
personal use of an article or other small part of a publicly
marketed copyrighted work or a work in a library's
collection for such purpose as study, scholarship, or
research; and
- to make transitory copies if ephemeral or incidental to a
lawful use and if retained only temporarily.
Without infringing copyright, nonprofit libraries and other
Section 108 libraries, on behalf of their clientele, should be
able:
- to use electronic technologies to preserve copyrighted
materials in their collections;
- to provide copyrighted materials as part of electronic
reserve room service;
- to provide copyrighted materials as part of electronic
interlibrary loan service; and
- to avoid liability, after posting appropriate copyright
notices, for the unsupervised actions of their users.
Users, libraries, and educational institutions have a right
to expect:
- that the terms of licenses will not restrict fair use or
other lawful library or educational uses;
- that U.S. government works and other public domain
materials will be readily available without restrictions and
at a government price not exceeding the marginal cost of
dissemination; and
- that rights of use for nonprofit education apply in
face-to-face teaching and in transmittal or broadcast to
remote locations where educational institutions of the
future must increasingly reach their students.
Carefully constructed copyright guidelines and practices have
emerged for the print environment to ensure that there is a
balance between the rights of users and those of authors,
publishers, and copyright owners. New understandings, developed
by all stakeholders, will help to ensure that this balance is
retained in a rapidly changing electronic environment. This
working statement addresses lawful uses of copyrighted works in
both the print and electronic environments.
The information presented herein should not be taken as legal
advice and is only presented to be taken as reference material
and may or may not represent the views or interests of the
owners and/or administrators of this site or it's affiliates.
