The fair use doctrine is the educator's defense to a copyright infringement allegation. It is a common misunderstanding that all academic uses fall underneath the fair use umbrella. Even if the use falls under the scope of educational use, it must pass a four-prong test set forth in the Copyright Act. This test was created by Congress in order to balance the interests between the creator's intellectual property rights and society's need to educate the public. This is only one element the courts will consider in making a decision as to whether the use qualifies as fair use.
Quality is measured by comparing the amount of the work used to the entire work.
Even if a very small portion of a work is used, a copyright can be violated when the quality of the work taken goes to the essence or main idea that the author expresses within the work. When this factor is considered, the court takes into account all future affects of the use upon the owner's ability to effectively market the work. While the harm of making one copy of a 15 page short story might seem minimal, a court will also consider the effects of this conduct if many other people were allowed to do the same thing in the future. All four factors are considered by the courts in determining whether a person's conduct falls within the scope of fair use. In an effort to make the fair use doctrine understandable, Congress has supplemented the fair use doctrine with several guidelines.