Fair Use Week 2017: Day Two With Guest Expert Brandon Butler | Copyright at Harvard Library

"Fair use and open access are two crucial tools that serve the same core purpose: making information maximally available and useful without running afoul of copyright law. A comprehensive strategy for increasing access to knowledge has to bring both tools to bear (at least in countries where fair use or something like it is available).

And yet, it is a tempting rhetorical strategy to deprecate fair use as part of the argument for open access, or for copyright reform generally. Fair use, we are sometimes told, is too weak, too uncertain, too risky, so we must turn to open access/open licensing as the one true path to unlocking knowledge. Lawrence Lessig may be the most common source for the view, articulated in his book Free Culture, that 'fair use in America simply means the right to hire a lawyer.'

Fair Use Week itself is evidence that Lessig’s clever put-down has not worn well over time; fair use is more-and-more understood as a reliable First Amendment right that powers the HathiTrust, South Park, and This Charming Charlie with equal aplomb. Fair use will not generally allow levels of access and use that are as wide open and unambiguous as open access, but fair use is still a crucial—and reliable—part of the legal protections for libraries and our users."