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# A Helpful Guide to Fair Use
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/guide-to-fair-use/
- Published: 2011-04-14T15:50:57.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:02:49.000Z
- Description: Fair use is a term we hear bandied about all the time nowadays (Shepard Fairey vs. AP, Patrick Cariou vs. Richard Prince, etc.), but what is it really? The library of the University of Minnesota wants to help you out.
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, Copyright, fair use, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/04/metal-copyright-symbol.jpg "metal-copyright-symbol")

Fair use is a term we hear bandied about all the time nowadays (Shepard Fairey vs. AP, Patrick Cariou vs. Richard Prince, etc.), but what is it really?

The library of the University of Minnesota has this very useful guide called “[Thinking Through Fair Use](http://www.lib.umn.edu/copyright/fairthoughts?ref=hyperallergic.com)” to help you determine if what you’re doing does in fact falls within the guidelines, and they remind us that “Fair use is very context-dependent”. Sure, those guidelines are more easily enforced (or circumvented) when you have high-power attorneys behind you, but in the wise words of Auntie Mame, “[knowledge is power](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xykJHsZ7y4I&ref=hyperallergic.com).”

*image* [*via*](http://www.psdgraphics.com/icons/3d-copyright-symbol/?ref=hyperallergic.com)