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SUNY Cortland Guidelines on Fair Use of Copyrighted Works for Education and Research
SUNY Cortland views both liberal and professional education as integral to its mission and believes that
all study teaches students to think critically and prepares them for earning a living. As an institution
dedicated to the discovery, creation, and dissemination of knowledge, SUNY Cortland is committed to
complying with all the laws regarding intellectual property. That commitment includes the full exercise
of the rights accorded to users of copyrighted materials under the “fair use” provisions of federal
copyright laws, 17 U.S.C. Section 107. This includes the duplication of audio, video, photographs,
illustrations, computer software, and all other works used in the pursuit of teaching, learning, and
scholarship. Copyrighted material stored, viewed, and transported using SUNY Cortland information
technology resources must comply with campus copyright policies and appropriate state and federal laws.
SUNY Cortland intends to facilitate the knowledgeable and good faith exercise of full fair-use rights by
students, faculty, librarians, and staff in order to achieve its mission and strategic goals of academic
excellence and transformational education including teaching, research, education, and related activities.
In its vision of education for the common good, the exercise of fair use not only assists students, faculty
and staff in learning, teaching, and research but also creates new knowledge and contributes to bodies of
knowledge throughout all the disciplines, satisfying the purpose and intent of U.S. copyright laws in
fostering creating and disseminating of intellectual works for the welfare of the public.
In this good faith exercise of fair use, balancing the four factors of fair use is an ongoing and often case
by case effort: The factors enacted by Congress and applied by the courts to evaluate whether a use
qualifies as fair use are:
1. nature and purpose of use;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work being used;
3. the amount and substantiality of the work being used;
4. the effect of the use on the market for or value of the original