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Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests of copyright holders with the public interest in the wider distribution and use of creative works by ...
/ Can I copy-paste this text into Wikipedia? Possible/suspected violation; Complex issues/fair use checking – fair use is singled out as a complex issue, because often, when disputed, it is a matter of judgement whether the specified use is, or isn't, likely to be reasonable fair use.
When copyrighted text must be quoted, see the plagiarism and non-free content guidelines. Extensive quotation of copyrighted text is prohibited. Although quoting involves copying another writer's work without permission, it is generally permitted under fair use rules in the United States.
In the US, fair use (in the UK, fair dealing) is explicitly permitted as well, as is the right to sell a licensed copy of a copyrighted work, such as a video tape or sound recording. Also, both the Berne Convention and US law require that a work have some original creativity to be eligible for a copyright monopoly.
Fair use is the use of limited amounts of copyrighted material in such a way as to not be an infringement. It is codified at 17 U.S.C. § 107, and states that "the fair use of a copyrighted work ... is not an infringement of copyright." The section lists four factors that must be assessed to determine whether a particular use is fair.
Fair-use images should almost never be included as part of a general image gallery, because their "fair use" status depends on their proper use in the context of an article (as part of analysis or criticism). See Wikipedia:Fair use for details. An example of an exception might be a gallery of comparable screenshots from a video game as it ...
Wikipedia:Copy-paste (information page) – Information about plagiarism and copyright concerns with copy-paste, which cannot be done except in the case of short quotations. Paraphrasing of copyrighted material (article) – An overview of how close paraphrasing is treated under various jurisdictions' copyright laws.
Wikipedia (and all Wikimedia projects) strongly prefer "free" files. Where no free file exists, it is sometimes permissible to use a non-free (copyright-protected) file under the "fair use" provision. Fair use, in the United States, is the legal right to use copyright-protected materials under certain conditions.