Many creators misappropriately cite the legal defense of fair use when attempting to protect their intellectual property rights. That is, they may fall under the false assumption of safety in freely using a formally registered copyrighted material after transforming it, not profiting from it, or crediting it to the original artist. However, the one thing you must remain clear on is that fair use is not an automatic and universal permission granted to you. With that being said, please continue reading to better understand how fair use laws work together or against your intellectual property rights and how an experienced New Jersey copyright lawyer at The Ingber Law Firm can talk you through these legal implications.
How do fair use laws leave an impact on businesses, professionals, and content creators?
Say you are a business owner, professional, or online content creator who is made to defend yourself in an intellectual property infringement case. Well then, you may find comfort in knowing that you can raise the fair use legal argument before the court. However, this does not get you off the hook right away, so to speak. Rather, the court may equally weigh four commonly observed factors of fair use. These four factors are as follows:
- The purpose and character of your use: whether or not your use of the copyrighted material added new meaning, commentary, or value.
- The nature of the copyrighted material: whether or not you used factual copyrighted material rather than a highly creative original work.
- The amount and substantiality of the portion used: whether or not you used a large part of the copyrighted material or the “heart” of the original work.
- The effect on the copyrighted material’s market or value: whether or not you harmed the original artist’s ability to sell or license the original work now or in the future.
With these factors considered, as a business owner, the removal of infringing copyrighted material from your marketing campaigns can seriously disrupt your business operations. As a professional, you may realize too late that obtaining a limited-scope licensing agreement would have been the less taxing option in the long run. And if an online platform is ordered to take down the infringed content from your profile, you may suffer from a loss of views, engagement, revenue, and a good reputation in the online community.
How does fair use affect my rights as a copyright owner?
As the original owner of copyrighted material, you must understand that there are limits on your ability to enforce your intellectual property rights. This is commonly referred to as “copyright trolling,” where you may abuse your right to sue or threaten to sue third parties for copyright infringement, rather than fostering avenues to create and distribute original content legally.
And so, before you pursue an extreme resolution, you must understand when others can use your original work without your explicit permission. Generally speaking, the most common types of uses that qualify as fair use are commentary, criticism, parody, news reporting, education, and certain instances of nonprofit and commercial usage.
All of this to say, whichever side you are when it comes to a certain copyrighted material, please do not take any action with it without first consulting with a skilled Essex County, New Jersey intellectual property lawyer. Please schedule an initial consultation with our firm today.