ABSTRACT
The term "fair use" represents an important limitation on the exclusive legal rights that copyright law grants to protect owners of creative works and other forms of intellectual property. The concept of fair use, based in common law, developed over time in judicial doctrine as courts attempted to strike a balance between the rights of copyright owners to control their property and the greater benefit to society that these works may provide. The fair- use doctrine allows for limited copying and other use of materials protected by copyright without having to secure specific permissions or pay compensation to the owner. In the United States, the doctrine of fair use was solidified in statutory language when Congress amended the Copyright Act in 1976. The phrase "for limited times" underscored the important concept that society benefited from the free access to ideas and technological innovation and that ownership of copyrights should not be unlimited.
