The information presented here is general information for educational purposes only.
Copyright: A form of protection provided by the laws of the United States for "original works of authorship", including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations. (from copyright.gov)
Fair Use: fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. (from fairuse.Stanford.edu)
Plagiarism: to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source (from meriam-webster.com)
Public Domain: used to refer to content that isn't protected by copyright law (from copyrightlaws.com)
Fair Use has several important factors that need to be considered that include:
1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
