The Reasonable Good Faith Fair Use Defense

The copyright act provides a very important 'defense' for employees of a nonprofit educational institution who make a reasonable, good faith determination that their proposed use of copyrighted materials is a fair use. If such employees, acting within the scope of their employment, made a reasonable, good faith decision that their proposed use of copyrighted materials was a fair use under the copyright act, a court, later finding that they had infringed, must remit statutory damages. The key is that the infringer must have believed, and have had reasonable grounds for believing, the use was a fair one. Thus, taking the time to learn about copyright law and fair use, applying that knowledge and keeping some documentation of that analysis is not only the right thing to do, it may also help out in the long run.