Brevity/Limits
Copying is limited to the following:
- Poetry
- A complete poem is less than 250 words when printed on not more than two pages.
- An excerpt from a longer poem if the excerpt is less than 250 words.
- Prose
- A complete article, story or essay if it is less than 2500 words.
- An excerpt from a prose work, if the excerpt is less than 1000 words or ten percent of the work, whichever is less.
- One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon, or picture per book or periodical.
Portion Limitations
- Motion Media
- Up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less, in the aggregate of copyrighted motion media work.
- Text Material
- Up to 10% or 1000 words, whichever is less, in the aggregate of a copyrighted work consisting of text material.
- Poems
- An entire poem of less than 250 words may be used, but no more than 3 poems by one poet, or five poems by different poets from any anthology may be used. For poems of greater length, 250 words may be used but no more than three excerpts by a poet, or five excerpts by different poets from a single anthology may be used.
- Music, Lyrics and Music Video
- Up to 10% but in no event more than 30 seconds of the music and lyrics from an individual musical work (or in the aggregate of extracts from an individual work) whether the musical work is embodied in copies, or audio, or audiovisual works.
- Any alterations to a musical work shall not change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work.
- Illustrations and Photographs
- The reproduction or incorporation of photographs and illustrations is more difficult to define with regard to fair use because fair use usually precludes the use of an entire work. Under these guidelines a photograph or illustration may be used in its entirety but no more than 5 images by an artist or photographer may be reproduced or otherwise incorporated. When using photographs and illustrations from a public collective work, not more than 10% or 15 images, whichever is less, may be reproduced or otherwise incorporated.
- Numerical Data Sets
- Up to 10% or 2500 fields or cell entries, whichever is less, from a copyrighted database or data table. A field entry is defined as a specific item of information, such as a name or social security number, in a record of a database file. A cell entry is defined as as the intersection where a row and a column meet on a spreadsheet.
Copying and distribution Limitations
- Multimedia
- Only a limited number of copies, including the original, may be made of an educator's educational multimedia project. There may be no more than two use copies, only one of which may be placed on reserve. An additional copy may be made for preservation purposes but may only be used or copied to replace a use copy that has been lost, stolen or damaged. In the case of a jointly created multimedia project, each principal creator may retain one copy .