fair use
Enable an agent to recognise a fair-use claim, assess its supporting evidence for a particular use, and identify justified actions and unresolved legal questions.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an agent to recognise a fair-use claim, assess its supporting evidence for a particular use, and identify justified actions and unresolved legal questions.
Fair use is a limitation on copyright under United States law that permits certain uses of copyrighted works without the copyright owner's permission, determined case by case through a statutory four-factor analysis.
It can be Assemble a fair-use assessment for a precisely bounded proposed or actual use.; Request missing excerpts, distribution facts or market evidence.; Compare proposed changes in purpose, excerpt size, access or monetisation.; Retrieve relevant authorities and explain factual similarities and differences.; Recommend proceeding, revising the use, seeking permission or obtaining further review, with reasons.; Reopen an assessment when the use, evidence or applicable authority changes..
Distinguishing features
Ask whether the claimed basis is a copyright limitation rather than permission granted by a rights holder.
Require an identified use of identified material; the label alone does not establish permission for later uses.
Distinguish the copyright sense from trademark fair use and ordinary claims that conduct is fair.
For the United States anchor, require consideration of purpose, work nature, amount and market effect; educational purpose and fixed excerpt percentages are not automatic safe harbours. [Copyright Office guidance](https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html)
Scope
+ Jurisdiction, applicable authority and assessment date
+ The specific copyrighted material and acts for which fair use is asserted
+ Evidence and reasoning addressing the four statutory factors
+ Comparisons with relevant judicial decisions
+ Assessment status, uncertainty and conditions requiring reassessment
- General ownership, registration and duration of copyright
- Copyright licences and permission transactions
- Public-domain status and copyrightability determinations
- Fair dealing and other separately defined copyright exceptions
- Trademark fair use, plagiarism and attribution ethics
- Independent contractual, privacy and access-control obligations
Characteristics
- Governing jurisdiction
- Named jurisdiction; unresolved; multiple jurisdictions requiring separate assessments Determines which doctrine and authorities the assessment must address.
- Assessed use
- Actor, source work, selected material, act, purpose, audience, channel and date Defines exactly which conduct the conclusion covers.
- Purpose and commercial context
- Documented purposes, claimed different function, revenue model and beneficiary Supports examination of the character of the particular use.
- Source-work nature
- Factual and expressive characteristics; publication status; mixed; unknown Preserves characteristics relevant to the second factor.
- Amount used
- Words, pages, seconds, frames, pixels or other medium-appropriate units, with denominator where meaningful Makes quantitative extent inspectable without inventing a permitted threshold.
- Qualitative significance
- Central expression; peripheral expression; whole work; disputed; unknown, with explanation Records significance that numerical proportions cannot capture.
- Market relationship
- Identified original or derivative market, alleged substitution mechanism and supporting or contrary evidence Connects market-effect reasoning to a concrete market and causal account.
- Assessment status
- Unassessed; evidence incomplete; reasoned assessment recorded; disputed; judicially determined with procedural status Separates an agent's assessment from an adjudicated outcome.
- Authority dependency
- Statute or decision, pinpoint reference, jurisdiction, date and proposition supported Allows legal reasoning to be checked and updated.
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 17 findings · 30 questions.
Doctrine and applicability Identify the legal sense of fair use and whether it is the relevant basis for the proposed conduct.
An agent must establish the applicable doctrine before evaluating a fair-use claim.
Jurisdiction and authority
Anchor the assessment to a legal system and dated authorities.
Governing fair-use rule
Record the authority establishing the doctrine and any unresolved jurisdictional premise.
- Which jurisdiction's copyright law governs the acts being assessed? boundary
- Which statutory provisions and decisions establish the applicable rule, and when were they checked? provenance
Need for fair use
Connect the claim to an implicated copyright right and distinguish alternative grounds.
Claimed legal basis
Identify why fair use is being assessed, while linking ownership, protection and permission questions to neighbouring models.
- Which act and exclusive right make fair use relevant to this assessment? definition
- Is the asserted basis actually fair use, or permission, public-domain status, another exception or a different legal doctrine? boundary
Particular use and purpose Define the conduct being evaluated and the evidence about its purpose and character.
A useful assessment needs the actual use context, not only the user's description of their intentions.
Use boundaries
Identify the work, material and individual acts covered by the assessment.
Bounded use instance
Record the source version, selected passages or components, actor, audience and distribution conditions.
- Which exact version and portions of which work are copied, displayed, performed or otherwise used? provenance
- Which actors, acts, dates, audiences and channels does this assessment cover? boundary
Purpose and character
Examine the use's function and commercial or nonprofit context.
Purpose evidence
Preserve evidence of the asserted purpose and claimed transformation for assessment against applicable authority.
- What does this use do with the borrowed expression, and how does that function compare with the source's function? definition
- What surrounding commentary, workflow, audience behaviour or financial arrangement supports or contradicts the asserted purpose? provenance
Source nature and taking Examine the character of the source and the extent and significance of the material used.
The model must distinguish properties of the source from choices made when borrowing it.
Nature of source work
Record the source characteristics relevant to the second factor.
Expression and publication
Describe factual and creative elements and establish publication status without assuming that online availability resolves it.
- What factual, functional and creative expression appears in the material actually used? definition
- What evidence establishes the source's publication status at the time of use? provenance
Amount and substantiality
Record quantitative extent, qualitative importance and the connection between the taking and its purpose.
Extent and purpose fit
Measure the taking and explain why those particular elements were selected.
- How much of the relevant source work is used, measured in units appropriate to the medium? measurement
- Does the selection capture central expression, and why is its extent needed for the stated purpose? boundary
- Could a smaller or less revealing selection serve that purpose, and what would be lost? action
Market-effect evidence Investigate alleged effects on the source's market or value and the evidence behind those allegations.
Market reasoning needs a specified market, a causal mechanism and an account of uncertainty.
Markets and substitution
Identify market relationships and possible replacement of demand.
Market-effect mechanism
Record claimed substitution and distinguish it from other reasons demand might change.
- Which existing or potential market is alleged to be affected, and what authority supports its relevance? boundary
- Could recipients use this material instead of obtaining the original or a relevant derivative, and what evidence supports that account? provenance
Reach and counterfactual
Describe exposure and compare the use with a supported account of what would happen without it.
Observed and projected effects
Separate measured effects from forecasts and test assumptions about similar widespread conduct.
- What audience size, access conditions, availability period and redistribution are observed or expected? measurement
- What evidence supports the market counterfactual and projected effects if similar conduct became widespread? provenance
Reasoned assessment and action Connect evidence and authority to a bounded conclusion and a practical next step.
The agent needs an explainable assessment that preserves uncertainty and can be revised when its premises change.
Factor synthesis
Explain how the factors interact in the circumstances of the use.
Supported conclusion
Record supporting and opposing reasoning without converting the factors into an automatic point score.
- How do the factor analyses support or undermine the conclusion when considered together? definition
- Which judicial decisions were read, what propositions do they support, and which factual differences limit the analogy? provenance
- Which missing or disputed fact could materially change the assessment? boundary
Decision and reassessment
Record the operational decision, its owner and its limits.
Conditional action record
Distinguish the recommended action, organisational acceptance and any court determination.
- Should the agent proceed, revise the use, seek permission or request further review, and who owns that decision? action
- Which changes to purpose, material, distribution, market evidence or authority require reassessment? action
- Is the conclusion an internal assessment, a disputed claim or a court determination, and what is its procedural status? provenance
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- No sense was recorded; the copyright doctrine is inferred from the name and media-domain context.
- This is recalled knowledge, with no sources consulted; current case law and jurisdiction-specific formulations require verification.
- The listed applications are contexts in which fair use is considered, not categorical permissions; there is no universal numerical threshold.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of fair use this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- United States Code citation - 17 U.S.C. § 107 - Identifies the principal United States statutory provision governing fair use, rather than an identifier for individual uses.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of fair use this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- United States Congress: 17 U.S.C. § 107 identifies illustrative purposes and requires consideration of purpose and character, nature of the copyrighted work, amount and substantiality used, and effect on the potential market or value.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of fair use this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Quotation or reproduction for criticism and commentary.
- Use of copyrighted material in news reporting.
- Use for teaching, scholarship, and research.
- Parody that draws on a copyrighted work to comment on that work.
- Certain copying for search, indexing, or computational analysis, depending on the circumstances.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of fair use this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Treating an illustrative purpose such as education or news reporting as automatically qualifying.
- Assuming that a fixed word count, percentage, or duration guarantees fair use.
- Assuming that attribution or noncommercial intent alone makes a use fair.
- Ignoring the qualitative importance of the portion taken or the use's effect on relevant markets.
- Assuming that a fair-use conclusion also resolves separate questions involving contracts, privacy, trademarks, or anti-circumvention rules.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of fair use this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- The definition here covers the United States copyright doctrine; other jurisdictions may use the same term with different statutory requirements.
- The United Kingdom and Canada use fair-dealing provisions with specified purposes and jurisdiction-specific fairness requirements.
- European Union copyright law provides enumerated exceptions and limitations rather than a general equivalent of the United States fair-use doctrine.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of fair use this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- fair dealing - Generally requires a use to fall within specified statutory purposes before its fairness is assessed; United States fair use has an open-ended list of illustrative purposes.
- public domain - Public-domain material lacks applicable copyright protection; fair use permits particular uses of material that remains copyrighted.
- copyright licence - A licence supplies authorization from a rights holder; fair use operates without requiring that authorization.
- plagiarism - Plagiarism concerns misrepresenting authorship or failing to acknowledge sources; fair use concerns whether a use infringes copyright.
- transformative use - Transformation is a consideration within fair-use analysis, particularly its first factor, rather than a separate permission or conclusive test.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of fair use this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
What the second pass must settle
- Does the registry intend United States copyright fair use specifically, or a cross-jurisdiction concept requiring distinct jurisdictional profiles?
- Which existing Vercy model, if any, already owns this doctrine and should be linked as the source of truth?
- Which current controlling decisions govern the intended use contexts, especially where the function of the use or relevant licensing market is disputed?
- How should amount and qualitative significance be assessed for composite works, datasets, software and other sources with contested work boundaries?
- What evidence and review authority should this deployment require before an agent may act on an assessment?