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Using Primary Sources in the Classroom: About Fair Use

What is Fair Use?

The doctine of “fair use"  in U.S. Copyright law lists of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair,” such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Public Domain

A public domain work is a creative work that is not protected by copyright and which may be freely used by everyone. 

The reasons that the work is not protected include:
(1) the author failed to satisfy statutory
formalities to perfect the copyright
or
(2) the work is a work of the U.S. Government.

 By Lolly Gasaway, University of North Carolina

When do works enter the public domain?

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Andy Herzog
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