You may have heard that receiving a verdict in court is the only way to definitively establish a particular use as fair use, but don’t let that intimidate you! Previous rulings on fair use provide information about what is likely or unlikely to be considered fair use in other situations.
The United States is a common law system, which means that laws are developed through court cases in addition to the statutory laws implemented by Congress. When similar cases are tried in a court of law, judges refer to the existing case law to inform their decisions, and they are even required to follow the legal precedent if it came from a higher court in their same jurisdiction, or from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Our fair use page includes several tools and checklists to help you evaluate the four factors of fair use as they apply to different situations. These checklists rely on legal precedent, meaning they are based on the existing case law pertaining to fair use. The resources linked below provide summaries of cases involving fair use, which can help you see how judges have applied the four factors of fair use in practice:
- Columbia University’s Copyright Advisory Office – Case Studies
- Stanford University Libraries – Summaries of Fair Use Cases
- U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index - Search for fair use case summaries by jurisdiction and/or category (such as parody, music, or education).
DISCLAIMER: The information on these web pages and that received from Copyright Services at The Ohio State University Libraries and the Health Sciences Copyright Coordinator is not legal advice, nor is either office legal counsel to the university or any members of the university community.