"text": "Copyright law creates property rights
for the creators of certain works. If you copied another
person's writing, speech, art, music, or choreography
without permission, that person can sue you for 'trespassin
g' on their property. (And then the court, a government
actor, can order you to stop your copyright infringement
and impose financial penalties on you.) Copyright law
limits free expression in order to give people an incentive
to create more expressions. If you could freely copy
someone else's work without paying for it, there would be
no incentive for anyone to create new material. Why take
the time to create a product if you will receive no reward?
However, overly rigid copyright laws would reduce the
public's access to information. Copyright law attempts to
resolve this tension by distinguishing between <em>expressi
on</em> and <em>ideas</em>. Copyright law does not protect
the ideas, facts, methods of operation or scientific
principles contained in an author's expression. This
information is considered public. However, it does protect
the author's particular way of expressing ideas and facts.
Additionally, copyright law has an exception for 'fair use'
of someone else's expression. Courts weigh four factors
when they're determining whether your copying of someone
else's work to create your own work was 'fair use.' First,
they look at the purpose of the work you created. If the
new work was created to make a profit, that generally leans
against a finding of fair use. However, just because your
work has a commercial purpose does not mean that the work
is not protected by fair use. Parodies are a good example.
Many parodies have been accorded a fair-use privilege even
though they were created for commercial profit. Second,
they consider the 'nature of the copyrighted work.'
Generally, works of fiction tend to receive more protection
under this factor than works of nonfiction. Third, they ask
how much your new work takes from the copyrighted material.
Usually the more material taken, the less likelihood that
the copying is considered “fair use.” Finally, the courts
will ask whether your new work has harmed the commercial
value of the copyrighted expression.",