Fair Use

The purpose of copyright, as stated in the U.S. Constitution, is to promote the production of new creative works. The mechanism by which this [Page 669]promotion is enacted consists of granting authors and inventors a limited monopoly over the rights and economic benefits of their creations. While the monopoly is limited in time (currently covering the life of the author plus 70 years in the United States), its scope is also bounded. Through the doctrine of fair use, copyright law recognizes that no act of creation happens in a vacuum and that absolute monopoly to rights would severely limit the very process of innovation copyright seeks to protect. New creative works arise out of dialogue with, reference to, or inspiration from previous works. Often, as ...