Fair Use and Copyright

Understanding Copyright and Fair Use

The procedures followed in course reserve service at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library and the YSN Library constitute a good-faith effort to comply with copyright laws and fair use exemptions as identified in Title 17 U.S. code. Copyright law grants to an author certain rights over work that she has produced. Copyright may be granted to both published and unpublished works. Copyright generally grants the author exclusive rights to copy a work and to distribute those copies. Those exclusive rights, however, are limited by fair use limitations as described in section 107 of the copyright law. Specifically, limited reproduction of copyrighted material is allowed for educational purposes.

Material Protected by Copyright Law

Fair Use

Applying Fair Use to Course Reserves

Related Sites

Material Protected by Copyright Law

To be eligible to be copyrighted, a work must be the product of original authorship exressed in some concrete form. A research article, a Web page, a video and photographs are examples of works eligible for copyright.

Facts you should know about copyright:

Works created after March 1, 1989 that do not carry a copyright statement or symbol are still covered by copyright.
Unpublished work is still covered by copyright.
Facts contained in a work are not covered by copyright.
Material in the public domain are not covered by copyright. These include:
- Documents produced prior to 1920. Copyright protection has expired.
- Material produced by the U.S. government. Copyright protection does not apply to government publications.
- Copyright does not apply to lists of facts, such as a list of addresses or phone numbers.

If a document is not covered by copyright law, then it may be photocopied and distributed freely. Sometimes the holder of copyright (i.e., the author or publisher) may include a written statement waiving certain rights under copyright. An author or publisher may, for example, explicitly state that photocopying and distribution of a document is allowed, although this is unusual.

Fair Use

Fair use is defined in section 107 of title 17. It provides an exception to the rights guaranteed to an author by copyright protection. Unfortunantely, fair use is not a simple rule: it requires that the following four considerations be weighed:

The nature of use of the document.
This requires a consideration of how you plan to use the document. Criticism, commentary, educational and nonprofit use are all favored by fair use.
The nature of the document itself.
Fair use favors works that are factual in nature as opposed to literary or fiction works.
The proportion of the document to be used.
This requires a judgement about the amount of the work to be used in relation to its entirety. The greater the proportion of the work, the less fair use applies. Thus, an entire book may not be photocopied under the provisions of fair use.
The effect of the proposed use on the market for the work.
If the first three considerations weigh against fair use, this fourth consideration does not need to be weighed--in this case fair use does not apply. However, in cases where the first three favor fair use, this fourth item must be weighed. The general rule of thumb arising from this fourth consideration is that items should not remain on course reserve for more than one year of use.

Applying Fair Use to Course Reserves

The Cushing/Whitney Medical Library provides Course Reserve Services that comply with copyright law. Guidelines are available to help you judge what you may place on course reserve at the library.

Interpretation of copyright law and fair use may change due to court cases or pending legislation. The librarians at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library are monitoring these developments and will make adjustments to course reserve service as warranted.

Site URL: http://www.med.yale.edu/library/