Fair Use

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review.

It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. It is based on free speech rights provided by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.The term "fair use" is unique to the United States; a similar principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions.

Civil law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to copyright.United States trademark law also incorporates a "fair use" defense, which also stems from the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution.

"Notwithstanding the provisions of sections § 106 and § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright…”