Fair Use 107. . . . The fair use of a copyrighted work . . . An additional assurance of the public's right to access copyrighted information is embodied in the fair use provision of the 1976 Copyright Statute, currently in force. Fair use not only supports the constitutional goal of advancing knowledge creation, but also ties the policy goals of our intellectual property law to those of the first amendment. Ironically, although fair use may be unfamiliar to many, it may also be our greatest buttress for educational and individual access to the information that contributes to the substance of our society and our nation.
Fair use is essential to the operation of the first amendment. .
Fair use is the most important aspect of copyright law for education, individual self-development, and free expression. The constitutional policy that supports public access to information is seldom considered in case law. They, instead, tend to educate themselves regarding the seemingly more exigent economic issues at hand. The result is that the public's interest in access to information is underrepresented. Educators and public interest groups, such as the Conference of College Composition and Communication's Intellectual Property Committee and Caucus , the Electronic Frontier Foundation , and the Digital Future Coalition have taken on the heaviest responsibility for bringing policy issues to legislators' attention and for fighting to protect public access to information.