Fair Use Laws + Teaching

Common Definition for the Fair Use Laws
The federal government offers this definition for the laws.

"Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use.  Section 107 calls for consideration of the following four factors in evaluating a question of fair use: (1) Purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes, ... (2) Nature of the copyrighted work, ... (3) Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, ... [and the] (4), Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

Rationale for Laws Being in Place
The Fair Use Laws are in place to protect the original work, but also allows for the work to be transformed. In this article from Stanford, it states that the ambiguous definition of fair use--"any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and 'transformative' purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work"--  is in place so that is is open for interpretation, much like free speech in the Bill of Rights. The principle is based on the idea that the public is entitled to copyrighted materials--in portions--freely. Further, it states that most use of the laws come from two purposes: (1) commentary and criticism and (2) parody. For commentary and criticism, the rationale for the laws comes from the idea that the review provides benefits for the public and enhanced by using the original work. it also brings attention to the original work. On the other hand, for parodies, the rationale is that, by nature, parodies must use the original work and it "conjure[s] up" the original work. In all, copyright material may be used in limited form if the work transforms the original work in some capacity and fits into the four factors.  

Statistic
The Association of Research Libraries offers the infographic linked at the end of this article. Within that inforgraphic, it states that "Experts estimate that industries reliant on fair use contributed $2.4 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2008–2009, or approximately 17 percent of the US GDP" This demonstrates that the laws are very important to the US economy. The industries most impacted are manufacturing, retail, and agriculture.

Teaching Resource to Use in the Classroom

This website offers a poster of this picture for purchase. The graphic could be hung in the classroom to assist students in understanding what images they can use in the presentations, posters, and more they create for assignments. As described in the comments at the end of the page, this image is one that can be used for educational purposes, but they recommend citing the source. These have been satisfied by this blog post assignment being educational, the blog being an educational blog, being labeled as a resource for teachers, and citing the source through a link.

This fair use infographic would also be very helpful to have displayed in the classroom. It provides information beyond images. The document has been label free for reuse.