Monday, February 26, through Friday, March 2, 2018 is Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week, celebrating the legal doctrines of fair use in the United States and fair dealing in Canada and other jurisdictions.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and several other library organizations and educational institutions participate in this annual event to promote broader knowledge about these legal doctrines and to highlight their critical importance to teaching, research, and the progress of science and culture.
In the United States, fair use acts as a limitation on the exclusive rights granted under copyright, permitting the use of copyrighted works without permission under certain circumstances. As the Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week website explains:
“These doctrines facilitate balance in copyright law, promoting further progress and accommodating freedom of speech and expression…While fair use and fair dealing (are) employed on a daily basis by students, faculty, librarians, journalists, and all users of copyrighted material, Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week is a time to promote and discuss the opportunities presented, celebrate successful stories and explain the doctrine.”
Fair use is absolutely essential to the teaching and research that occurs at Towson University every day. To celebrate Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week, Cook Library will host a group viewing of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) webcast, “Can’t You Just Say Yes? Answering Copyright Questions About Fair Use for Faculty Colleagues.” The webcast will be shown in Cook Library Room 411 on Wednesday, February 28, from 2-3 p.m. All members of the campus community are welcome to attend.
Cook Library would also like to use the occasion of Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week to recommend the following resources about fair use:
- ARL’s Fair Use Myths and Facts and Fair Use Fundamentals infographics
- More Information on Fair Use, U.S. Copyright Office
- U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index
- To view notable fair use cases relevant to higher education, select all jurisdictions and the single category Education/Scholarship/Research
- The Origin of U.S. Fair Use, a comic from the Harvard Library Office for Scholarly Communication
- Fair Use Week on Tumblr
- A Window on Fair Use, from MIT TechTV
- Fair Use Codes of Best Practices, Center for Media & Social Impact, American University
