Copyright is a legal protection granted to creators of original works.  According to section 106 of the United States copyright law, copyright owners have the exclusive rights to do and authorize the following:

• to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phono records;
• to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
• to distribute copies or phono records of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
• in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;
• in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and
• in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission

- What is Copyright?

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Fair use allows for the reproduction of copyrighted work for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. The following four factors are used to determine if a use is fair:

• The purpose and character of the use.
• The nature of the copyrighted work.
• The amount and substantiality of the portion being used.
• The effect on the potential market for or value of the work.

The four criteria for determining fair use listed above are very general. To aid in the interpretation of Fair Use criteria, interested groups of publishers and users have agreed on more specific guidelines, including:

• Guidelines and fair use in photocopying of copyrighted print materials for educational purposes.
• Guidelines and fair use of copyrighted musical works in education.
• Guidelines for photocopying of interlibrary loans by libraries and libraries

- Fair Use, BU L&IT

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