Item Favoring Fair Use
News Reporting
Explanation
Under Copyright Law, using copyrighted materials without the author's permission is considered to be fair use.
However, news reports cannot simply publish anything they desire under the claim of "fair use." For example, as the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press explains, "The Supreme Court in 1988 let stand a ruling that use of unpublished diaries and letters under the premise of research or news reporting may impair the future value of those writings. Such works are protected by a prepublication copyright. Further, there is a presumption that use of unpublished works is not fair use, the lower court concluded."
