Fair use is a concept embedded in U.S. law that recognizes that certain uses of copyright-protected works do not require permission from the copyright holder. (See Title 17, section 107)
The “fair use” of a copyrighted work, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 107, is not infringement. Fair use includes uses “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.”
The determination whether a particular use of a copyright is fair is often fact-intensive, and will typically depend on the specifics of how and why the copyrighted work is used. Under current law, an accused infringer bears the burden of establishing fair use. Thus, the success of a fair use defense to a copyright infringement lawsuit can be an uncertain prospect for an accused infringer. On the other hand, fair use is a highly flexible doctrine that has been extended to uses that the 1976 Act’s drafters may not have anticipated, such as mass digitization of books for search purposes.
There are four non-exclusive factors to evaluate in determining if a use is "FAIR" and thus exempt from copyright restrictions.
* Not all uses in an academic context are automatically considered fair use - Fair Use Evaluator
The Fair Use Doctrine is probably the most important exemption to copyright protections for educational settings, allowing many uses of copyrighted works for the purposes of teaching and research. The complexity of fair use and its importance in academia make it imperative that every member of Seton Hall University understands how to make judgements concerning fair use.