Image copyright question
Out of context: Reply #7
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- Dolan0
There is no percentage rule. It is a case by case basis based on "fair use" which has well-codified exemptions. Read the last sentence of the excerpt to your company and client.
From Stanford Law:
The fair use statute requires the courts to consider the following questions in deciding this issue:
Is it a competitive use? (In other words, if the use potentially affects the sales of the copied material, it's usually not fair.)
How much material was taken compared to the entire work of which the material was a part? (The more someone takes, the less likely it is that the use is fair.)
How was the material used? Is it a transformative use? (If the material was used to help create something new it is more likely to be considered a fair use that if it is merely copied verbatim into another work. Criticism, comment, news reporting, research, scholarship and non-profit educational uses are most likely to be judged fair uses. Uses motivated primarily by a desire for a commercial gain are less likely to be fair use).
As a general rule, if you are using a small portion of somebody else's work in a non-competitive way and the purpose for your use is to benefit the public, you're on pretty safe ground. On the other hand, if you take large portions of someone else's expression for your own purely commercial reasons, the rule usually won't apply.