Fair Use Checklist

Use a Fair Use Checklist to document your analysis of whether you should seek permission to use a copyrighted work before using it.

The checklists referenced are all based on the Four Factors of Fair Use examined in the What Is Fair Use? section. The factors are:

1. the Purpose of the usage
2. the Nature of the usage
3. the Amount of the usage
4. the Effect of the usage

Recommended Fair Use Checklists

Fair Use checklists may be found at a number of sites. We recommend the following with a few usage caveats noted below. Complete a checklist analysis for each copyright-protected work used. They will help you to analyze whether or not your planned use is covered under fair use.

The Copyright Management Center has a Checklist for Fair Use. The checklist comes in both an online and Adobe PDF version. Be aware of the following items as you work with the online form. Some items will be relevant to the printed PDF version as well.

• The Name box is for the name of the work, not your name. Unfortunately you may need to enter more information than just the name (e.g., ISBN, website URL) to properly identify the work. In that case, you may want to transcribe the additional information after you print the checklist.
• The Project box is for your course name as well as any special project.
• The online form will record a check when you click on a check box. Click on an entered check again to remove it.
• You can enter multiple checks in a single column. It is common to have checks on both the Favoring and Opposing columns.
• Print a copy of the online form when you finish. If your use of the copyright-protected work favors fair use, print and note that on the form. Then sign and file a copy of the checklist with your project or course records.

The University of Minnesota Libraries has the Fair Use Analysis Tool that also comes in both an online and Adobe PDF version. The online version is more sophisticated than most checklists. It lets you enter comments as you work your way through the Four Factors. It also calculates whether your usage favors fair use or not based on how you weigh each factor. As with the other checklist, this one is not perfect for all users. Be aware of the following items as you work with the online form. Some items will be relevant to the printed PDF version as well.

• The online form only supplies one Name/title box for you to enter all of your information relevant to the search. You can copy the following lines, paste them into the Name/title box and then type the appropriate information next to the prompt.
  
  COPY & PASTE THE LINES BELOW INTO THE FORM
  
  | Name of Work:
  | Institution:
  | Project/Course:
  | Prepared By:
  | Signature:___________________________
  
  
• The Date will be entered automatically when you print the form.
• The prompt to forward a copy of the analysis to your email address is entirely optional.
• The Submit Report button at the bottom of the form will calculate whether you favor fair use or not based on how you weighed the Four Factors. The site then presents the information in a Fair Use Analysis Summary report. If the generated report does not reflect your intended analysis, do the analysis manually with the Adobe pdf file.
• If your analysis favors fair use, use the Printer-Friendly Version button on the top of the Fair Use Analysis Summary page to format the report for printing and then print the work. Print, sign and file a copy of the report with your project or course records.