Fair Use Week (Sec. 107)
By Eric Harbeson | February 23, 2026
This is the latest in our series of posts marking the 50th anniversary of the Copyright Act of 1976. To find a list of all the posts in this series, click here.Happy Fair Use Week, everyone!
Every year around this time, Civil Society copyright advocates set aside a week to celebrate one of the most important parts of our copyright law. The brainchild of the incomparable Kyle K. Courtney, Fair Use Week is now in its thirteenth year. What started out as a celebration within the Harvard University community has now grown into an international celebration. So as a part of the Fair Use week celebrations, we are extending our series on the 50th Anniversary of the Copyright Act of 1976 to include a week of posts on Section 107 of Title 17, our fair use statute.
We love fair use. We use it every day, and you probably do, too. For my part, as a US-American, I’m also kind of proud of it. The fair use doctrine as we know it in the United States is one of the country’s better contributions to intellectual property laws, and its codification was the product of a great deal of thoughtfulness and care by both Congress and the Copyright Office. The doctrine has received some criticism, in international circles, for its being too open ended to be compliant with the Berne Convention, but that criticism has been largely—and justly—ignored by Congress.