The Lawyer's Role in Promoting the Use of Fair Use

Abstract

A third party’s ability to exploit a literary work, photograph, film, song, or database will depend on the nature of the copyright owner’s work and the third party’s usage. This article provides an introductory standardization to help lawyers answer questions regarding the contours of copyright, fair use, and select limitations on copyright in order to provide a simple guide to reduce a bit of the uncertainty. The purpose is to provide a framework for how a lawyer can respond to the common question of whether a particular use of copyrighted works is permitted by a third party and to place the framework for the answer in the context of an opinion letter. In this way, the third party user will have an answer that can be relied upon when seeking publication or Errors & Omissions Insurance for distribution and exhibition.