3: Fair Use

Can you use copyrighted material when you’re practicing with InDesign CC?

Can you make a funny image using a movie poster by replacing the faces of the actors with the faces of your friends?

What about using cool images from your favorite video game as you’re learning InDesign CC?

These uses of copyrighted material are completely legit. The people who came up with our copyright laws were careful to make sure that the laws don’t limit—but instead promote—creativity.

They did this with a set of ideas called fair use.

https://youtu.be/Q_9O8J9skL0 Links to an external site.

Fair use policy is a set of rules that make sure copyright protection doesn’t come at the cost of creativity and freedom. Copyright can’t be used to limit someone’s personal growth or learning, freedom of speech, or artistic expression and creative exploration. Those ideas are more important than copyright, so copyright doesn’t apply when it gets in the way of these higher ideals. You’re free to use copyrighted materials in the pursuit of these higher goals. Some people (mistakenly) believe that fair use doesn’t apply to copyrighted materials, but in fact, it applies only to copyrighted materials. Here is a list of issues that a court would consider when making a decision about fair use: