|Intellectual property law| |Sui generis rights| Fair use is a
limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by
copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States
copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use
of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the
rights holders. Examples of fair use include commentary, search
engines, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library
archiving and scholarship. It provides for the legal, unlicensed
citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another
author's work under a four-factor balancing test. The term fair
use originated in the United States. A similar principle, fair
dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions. Civil
law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to
copyright. Fair use is one of the traditional safety valves.
Fair use under United States law  The legal concept of "test
copyright" was first ratified by the United Kingdom of Great
Britain's Statute of Anne o