For students, faculty, and researchers, Fair Use Week (February 26-March 2) is reason to celebrate: fair use provides an essential safety valve that allows us to use copyrighted works without obtaining permission.

Fair use is a short piece of copyright law that reflects the need for copyrighted works to be available to be used for “purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching…scholarship, or research.”

In celebration of Fair Use Week, the MIT Libraries are hosting two events:

Fair use game show
February 27, 3-4pm, 3-133
Join us for food, fair use, and fun! Expert panelists will make arguments for and against fair use and the audience will vote: Fair use or not? You decide! Who will win? Everyone wins when they better understand copyright and fair use. Refreshments provided.

Make a fair use kaleidocycle
February 28, 10am–3pm, Lobby 10
We’re hosting a table where we’ll chat about fair use and give away handy fair use kaleidocycles that you can make at the table or take home. (See how it works here, or download the template) We’ll have scissors and glue and will be on hand to help you think through the four fair use factors.

 

 

Also check out these resources to learn more about copyright and fair use:

• Fair use and copyright overview: Overview of how to determine the copyright and licensing status of an image or other content, how to apply fair use, where to , and how to cite.
• Fair Use Fundamentals: infographic from the Association of Research Libraries on what fair use is and why it’s important.
• Fair use quiz: Self-guided quiz explaining fair use and providing various scenarios to assess common fair use cases.