Summary Index to Usable Portions of Copyrighted Works
Note: The table below constitutes a summary reference to the recommended portions of copyrighted materials from different media, for incorporation into multimedia projects by educators and students. However, the table itself should be used only in conjunction with the full text of the Fair Use Guidelines, which defines the purposes to which they apply, and the further conditions of use within these purposes. The use of portions larger than those described here may also be permissible, but the user must test a particular application against all four factors of the"Fair Use doctrine" contained in the law (Title 17, U.S. Code, Sec. 107) to determine if it qualifies as fair.
Medium |
Proportion |
Limits |
Additional guidelines |
| Film/ Video (Motion Media) |
10% | Up to 3 minutes from a work | |
| Text | 10% | Up to 1000 words | |
| Poetry | Entire poem if 250 words or less | Up to 250 words | If from anthology, limit of 3 from one poet or 5 poems total |
| Music/Lyrics/ MusicVideo | 10% | 30 seconds maximum | No change to melody or fundamental character of the work |
| Photos/ Illustrations | Complete image | Up to five from one artist | |
| Collected Work Images | 10% | Up to 15 images | Max 15 from a single collected work |
| Database (Numerical Data Sets) |
10% | Up to 2500 fields or cell entries such as spreadsheet | Cell entry is row by column intersect (spreadsheet). Field entry is single item of information. |
Adapted with permission, from an original table by, Instructional Media & Technology Services, Ohio University.