Fair Use Checklists, Tools, and Best Practice Guides

Fair Use Overview – Fair Use Explained

Fair use is a thoroughly understandable, flexible doctrine. But, people sometimes benefit from seeing guidelines or best practices for applying fair use to their particular circumstances. Or, people who do not routinely need to do fair use calculations may feel they understand fair use, but want a tool to make sure they don’t forget key aspects. Below we provide a number of checklists and tools, and also subject-specific “best practices”.

Checklists and Tools

Numerous organizations have developed fair use “checklists” and tools to help people think through fair use questions. While these tools do not substitute for a through understanding of fair use, they can be helpful as a memory jog for folks who fundamentally understand fair use, but don’t work with it often.

• UMass: Fair Use Overview  and Fair Use Explained – a deeper dive
• “Thinking Through Fair Use“, University of Minnesota Libraries Copyright Services
• “Fair Use Checklist“, Columbia University Library
• “Fair Use Evaluator”, American Library Association

Subject-Specific Best Practice Guides

A number of “best practices in fair use” have been developed over the years by organizations and societies. We list here the guides by subject.

Film and Media

• Documentary filmmakers, “Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use“, Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers et al (2006)
• Journalism, “Principles in Fair Use for Journalism“, American University Center for Social Media (2013)
• Online video, “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video“, American University Center for Social Media (2008)
• Cinema and media studies publishing, “Statement of Fair Use Best Practices for Media Studies Publishing“, Society for Cinema and Media Studies (2008)
• Film and media teaching, “Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use in Teaching for Film and Media Educators” (2008)
• Film Stills / Screenshots – “Fair Use Publication of Film Stills“, Society for Cinema Studies (1992)
• Media Literacy Education – “The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education“, Action Coalition for Media Education et al (2008)
• Communication studies – “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Research in Communication“, International Communication Association (2010)

Images and Art

• Images in Teaching, Research, and Study, “Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study”, from the Visual Resources Association (2011)
• Visual Arts, “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts“, College Art Association (2015)
• Artworks, “Guidelines for the Use of Copyrighted Materials and Works of Art by Art Museums“, Association of Art Museum Directors (2017)

Performance Arts, Music, and Sound Recordings

• Dance – “Fair Use for Dance-Related Materials“, Dance Heritage Coalition (2009)
• Music Scholarship – “Best Practices in the Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials in Music Scholarship“, American Musicological Society (2010)
• Audio Preservation – “ARSC Guide to Audio Preservation“, Association for Recorded Sound Collections (2015)

Literary Works

• Journalism, “Principles in Fair Use for Journalism“, American University Center for Social Media (2013)
• Poetry – “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry“, Poetry Foundation (2011)

Teaching

• Open Courseware, “Best Practices in Fair Use for Open CourseWare“, MIT et al (2009)
• COVID-19 Quarantine Remote Teaching, “Public Statement of Library Copyright Specialists: Fair Use & Emergency Remote Teaching & Research“, University Information Policy Officers (March 13, 2020)
• Film and media teaching, “Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use in Teaching for Film and Media Educators” (2008)

Libraries, Archives, Museums

• Academic and Research Libraries – “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries“, Association of Research Libraries (2012)
• Orphan Works – “Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use of Collections Containing Orphan Works for Libraries, Archives, and Other Memory Institutions” (2014)
• Software Preservation – “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation“, Association of Research Libraries (2018, rev. 2019)
• Works of Art – “Guidelines for the Use of Copyrighted Materials and Works of Art by Art Museums“, Association of Art Museum Directors (2017)

More writings on Fair Use:

• Fair Use Overview
• Fair Use Explained
• Fair Use Checklist (under revision)
• Fair Use Checklists, Tools, and Best Practice Guides (this page)
• Fair Use & Online Education Resources