What is fair Use Regarding Images?

What is Fair Use?



Fair use provisions of U.S. copyright law allow use of copyrighted materials on a limited basis for specific purposes without the permission of the copyright holder.

Is my use fair? -- The four factor test:


FACTOR WEIGHING TOWARDS FAIR USE

Purpose of use Nonprofit, educational, scholarly or research use; Transformative use: repurposing, recontextualizing, creating a new purpose or meaning
Nature or type of work Published, fact-based content
Amount Used Using only the amount needed for a given purpose; Using small or less significant amounts
Market Effect

If there would be no effect, or it is not possible to obtain permission to use the work



It is necessary to weigh all four factors to decide whether a fair use exemption seems to apply to a proposed reuse. Courts take a holistic approach -- they do not simply add up a positive or negative for each factor.

Judges have tended to focus on two questions that collapse the four factors:

Does the use transform the material, by using it for a different purpose?

Was the amount taken appropriate to the new purpose?
To help support a fair use case for an image:

Use lower resolution or thumbnail versions where possible;
Place the image in a new context or use it for a new purpose; and
Use only the parts of the image needed for the purpose
In addition to fair use, consider Using images that are openly available for reuse."

LINK

For instance, this image gives credit to the copyright holder. It is a copy signed by the artist - Mike Lester - that I bought some years ago. So I have fair use of this image.



Some other things about copyright. An image simply posted on the internet - It would be hard to show that I didn't have copyright or that I have the explicit permission of the artist/copyright holder. Preemptive judgments should not be made.