Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_States_Code/Title_17/Chapter_1/Section_107
Timestamp: 2015-11-27 17:29:40
Document Index: 735745267

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 106', '§ 107', '§ 108', '§ 101', '§ 107', '§ 101', '§ 607']

United States Code/Title 17/Chapter 1/Section 107 - Wikisource, the free online library
United States Code/Title 17/Chapter 1/Section 107
←←§ 106A. Subject Matter Of Copyright: Compilations And Derivative Works
Title 17, Chapter 1, § 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use
§ 108. Limitations on exclusive rights: Reproduction by libraries and archives→→
From the U.S. Copyright Office.: Added by § 101 of title I of the Copyright Act of 1976 (Pub. L. 94-553), as amended by Public Laws 101-650 and 102-492.
14861United States Code — Title 17, Chapter 1, § 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair useby the United States Government
1.1 Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990
1.2 Public Law 102-492
2.1 General Background of the Problem
2.2 General Intention Behind the Provision
2.3 Intention as to Classroom Reproduction
2.4 Reproduction and Uses for Other Purposes
2.5 Agreement on Guidelines for Classroom Copying in Not-for-Profit Educational Institutions
2.5.1 With Respect to Books and Periodicals
3 Guidelines for Educational Uses of Music
3.1 A. Permissible Uses
3.2 B. Prohibitions
Section 107 was added by § 101 of title I of the Copyright Act of 1976 (Pub. L. 94-553, Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2541), with effect from January 1, 1978.
Pub. L. 101-650, title VI, § 607, Dec. 1, 1990, 104 Stat. 5132;
Amended first sentence by substituting "106 and 106A" for "106", with effect from June 1, 1991.
Public Law 102-492[edit]
Pub. L. 102-492, Oct. 24, 1992, 106 Stat. 3145
Added to the end the following: “The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.”
General Background of the Problem[edit]
The judicial doctrine of fair use, one of the most important and well-established limitations on the exclusive right of copyright owners, would be given express statutory recognition for the first time in section 107. The claim that a defendant's acts constituted a fair use rather than an infringement has been raised as a defense in innumerable copyright actions over the years, and there is ample case law recognizing the existence of the doctrine and applying it. The examples enumerated at page 24 of the Register's 1961 Report, while by no means exhaustive, give some idea of the sort of activities the courts might regard as fair use under the circumstances: "quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author's observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported."
Although the courts have considered and ruled upon the fair use doctrine over and over again, no real definition of the concept has ever emerged. Indeed, since the doctrine is an equitable rule of reason, no generally applicable definition is possible, and each case raising the question must be decided o