The U.S. Copyright Office has created a
Fair Use Index to assist creators and user in understanding what is considered “Fair Use.”
Fair use is a longstanding and vital aspect of American copyright law. The goal of the Index is to make the principles and application of fair use more accessible and understandable by presenting a searchable database of court opinions, including by category and type of use (e.g., music, internet/digitization, parody).
Users can go to the above link and easily search for only those cases involving photography in any of the District Courts, the Federal Court of the Supreme Court.
For each decision, the Copyright Office has provided a brief summary of the facts, the relevant question(s) presented, and the court’s determination as to whether the contested use was fair. The Index ordinarily will reflect only the highest court decision issued in a case. It does not include the court opinions themselves, but they have provided the full legal citation allowing those who wish to read the actual decisions to access them through free online resources (such as Google Scholar and Justia), commercial databases (such as Westlaw and LEXIS), or the federal courts’ PACER electronic filing system, available at
www.pacer.gov.
Although the Fair Use Index should prove helpful in understanding what courts have to date considered to be fair or not fair, the Copyright Office cautions that it is not a substitute for legal advice. For more information check out this
link.