All written content copyright Wolf Gordon Clifton, except where otherwise credited. Images, video clips, sound files, and other media used with copyright holders’ permission, under a public copyright license, are in the public domain, or are used in accord with the “fair use” doctrine.

Under United States copyright law, the “fair use” doctrine permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Examples of fair use include commentary, search engines, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving, and scholarship. U.S. courts use the following four factors to determine whether a given instance qualifies as fair use:

• The purpose and character of the use, including whether it is “transformative” and whether its purpose is commercial or nonprofit/educational
• The nature of the copyrighted work, and whether it is creative or merely factual
• The amount or substantiality used in relation to the copyrighted work
• The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the original

The use of short video clips, screenshots, posters, and cover artwork from copyrighted motion pictures, albums, and books in Beyond Human: Animals, Aliens, and Artificial Intelligence meets these factors. It is nonprofit and educational in purpose, serving to illustrate concepts and cultural perspectives on the subject matter; uses only a small portion of each copyrighted work; and is unlikely to negatively impact the potential market for or value of the original works. It therefore qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.