Navigate Copyright Ethics

Fair use checklists help you focus on the facts of a given situation in order to to better evaluate how fair use might apply. They also assist you in recording your decision-making process and serve as proof of your good-faith effort to apply fair use if your use is challenged by a rightsholder.

The Center for Media & Social Impact at American University has worked with various groups of content creators to help them document practices in their communities that are widely considered to be fair use. Courts take into account the common practices of a given community when deciding fair use cases. Each Code includes principles describing how and why fair use applies to a given practice or situation as well as limitations that should be observed to strengthen the case for fair use.