When Copying is OK...The Fair Use Law

Reviewed By Inga Davis

As many people can attest to, copyright laws can be extremely difficult to interpret but professionals, especially, must take the issue of copyright seriously. Nolo, a company that provides a vast website for legal self-help, has created this timely site dealing specifically with the fair use law of copyright. They have also included many links to related articles and products and all the other areas of their website concerning various legal issues.

When using another's works, it is necessary to have an understanding of what is or is not fair use of the copyright law. Outlined here are general fair uses and copying from unpublished material. Then focus is placed on the five basic rules to consider when using another's work. In general they are: copying or creating a new product, competing with the source, giving the author credit, how much is being used, and the total quality of what is used. The information is void of legalize but instead is written in layman's terms with examples provided for clarification.

This page is presented by a business so it has many advertisements, however, they are located along the outer edges of the page so as not to be a distraction to the information and most of them are related to the topic of copyright so they could be used as further resources. Even though it is business based, the information is presented in a factual, thorough, and relevant manner.

I give this site an overall good rating in helping to understand the complicated issue of copyright. Although, good examples are provided, a user to this site would still probably need to do more in-depth research into the issue for further understanding.