EU Fair Use

← Return to forum

  • I received an inquiry from a sister college in Switzerland. They have a faculty member that has parts of three books he wants to use in his class (in addition to an assigned book). The percentages of them are 6%, 15% and 25%. What are the copyright issues if he would put this into Blackboard? He is also putting the 3 books on reserve in the library. We are looking at US copyright law since Blackboard is housed in the US, but have a feeling we would actually be under both US and EU laws. If they follow US fair use guidelines, are EU's more or less strict?
  • If the copying action is taking place in Switzerland, then it's Swiss law that you'll need to follow. In most situations, copyright is covered by domestic law, even if the work is a foreign work.

    Under U.S. law, percentages by themselves don't grant or deny permission- you have to look at a fair use evaluation.

Posting to the forum is only available to users who are logged in.

← Return to forum