Fair use self-teaching quiz tool, web-based and mobile-friendly

MIT Libraries Office of Scholarly Publishing, Copyright & Licensing

In celebration of Fair Use Week, the MIT Libraries’ Office of Scholarly Publishing, Copyright, and Licensing has launched a mobile version of the web-based Fair Use Quiz that was initially released last year.

Access the quiz here. 

The quiz is designed to help students better understand the core concepts of copyright law’s “fair use” provision, the flexible — but notably ambiguous — exception under US copyright law that makes it possible to use others’ copyrighted works without permission. The aim of the quiz is to put information about fair use in the hands of students and empower them to make informed decisions about using copyrighted works.

The self-guided quiz, which also covers the basics of copyright and how copyright intersects with website “terms of use,” takes only about 10 minutes to complete. It walks through four cases, assisting students in considering, for example, whether it would be fair use to incorporate a figure from a scholarly journal in a thesis, or an image into a course blog.

Applying fair use can be complex; this quiz is intended to help students navigate some of the nuances and make their own assessments.

We welcome comments or questions.