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Fair Use Week

Fair Use / Fair Dealing Week 2017

Happy Fair Use / Fair Dealing Week! This annual event runs from February 20 – February 24, 2017.

Fair use (United States) and fair dealing (Canada, Australia, etc.) provide exceptions to copyright. Why are we celebrating? The event’s official website describes the impact:

“Fair use and fair dealing are essential limitations and exceptions to copyright, allowing the use of copyrighted materials without permission from the copyright holder under certain circumstances. Fair use and fair dealing are flexible doctrines, allowing copyright to adapt to new technologies. These doctrines facilitate balance in copyright law, promoting further progress and accommodating freedom of speech and expression.”

How do you participate in this event? Some ideas include writing your own blog post, hosting or attending a webinar, following #fairuseweek on Twitter, and exploring other ideas from the Association of Research Libraries. Fair use and fair dealing, of course, are not only important this week—these doctrines are important on a daily basis.

In the United States, examples of fair use are seen every day. Our 2016 blog post lists some examples. Since last year’s event, some cases related to fair use were in the news and discussed online:

The above list is not comprehensive. Search or browse through outcomes of more fair use cases through the U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index.

For more information about fair use, see information from United States Copyright Office and the UCF Libraries’ Scholarly Communication Copyright page.

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