Can I Rely on Fair Use for My Work in AI Systems?

What is fair use, and can I rely on it for my use of works in an AI system?  

Fair use is a doctrine, meaning it is essentially a limited exception.  That means if your use is fair, you don’t need to ask anybody for authorization or make any payments to make that use. It allows the use of unlicensed works for certain purposes, certain fair purposes. 

It is important to remember; fair use is not a blanket permission to use unlicensed works.  It operates as a defense to copyright infringement and is evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the courts.  

4 Fair Use Factors for Consideration 

The courts will look at four factors to determine whether an unlicensed use qualifies as fair use.   

1. Purpose and character of the use. This is where the court will ask how the party that is claiming fair use is using the copyrighted work.  How different is it?  How is this subsequent use different from the original purpose of the work? Why is the work being used?  If it’s commentary, research, or parody, that may help in a fair use defense. If it’s a commercial use, that may be more likely to count against you.  But having said that, it’s not automatic.  It’s not because you’re making commercial use that it is not possible for it to be fair use. And if it’s a transformative purpose, a purpose that is very different from the original work, where the use adds new meaning or function from the original work, that is going to help for a fair use defense.  But there again, it’s not determinative in and of itself.  A transformative use is not a get out of free jail card.   

2. The nature of the copyrighted work. Here, the court will look at the degree to which the subsequent use encourages creative expression. If you’re dealing with a factual and published work, that will lean more toward helping with a fair use defense than if using creative or an unpublished work.  

3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole. How much of the work was used? Did you use the heart of the work? That is going to be looked at in order to determine fairness. In an AI system, we often use the entire work, and that will weigh against a determination of fairness.  

4. The effect of use upon the potential market for or value or the copyrighted work. The fourth factor is the effect on the market. Does the use substitute for the original or harm whether it’s a real or likely market for the original works? Factor one and factor four two are the focus of the many, many, many pending AI related copyright litigations in the U.S.  

Other points to keep in mind: 

• These are four factors, but they’re not exhaustive.  
• We also don’t know which factor is going to matter more.  It will depend on the context. The test is a holistic test; it’s not a mathematical equation. It’s not because you’ve got three factors fair and one unfair that the determination of the court will be fairness. The court will balance everything given the circumstances.   

The bottom line: If you’re going to rely on a fair use defense, you must be ready to justify evidence in court.   

For businesses, dealing with fair use is a complex and uncertain approach.  And so the easiest way to deal with this uncertainty is to actually obtain licenses.  And this way, you could remove some of the unpredictability around fair use.