Summary Section 107, Chapter 1 of U.S. Code, Title 17, which contains the U.S. Copyright Law, grants exceptions to the general provisions of the law, under specific circumstances, outlined below, such as segments of information copied for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, or research. These exceptions are known as the Fair Use limitations on exclusive rights. Fair Use allows students to copy segments of otherwise protected material for educational use, such as criticism, comment or research.
Faculty are able to similarly copy portions of material for classroom distribution and use.
News reports may also include copied segments of otherwise protected material. In all such cases, section 106A makes attribution of the copyright holder legal. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.