Copyright and fair use are important topics in today's society where massive piracy of copyrighted material occurs. A product is considered copyrighted “when something is put into a “tangible form,” the creator of the work owns a copyright” (Simpson, 2005). These tangible forms include films, books, music, etc. (Simpson, 2005). Therefore, “Copyright is the law of the United States that protects the works of authors, artists, composers, and others from unauthorized use” (Cyberbee, n.d.). This means that if one wishes to use more than a limited quantity of copyrighted material, one will need to seek permission from the copyright owner (Richter, 2003). One must be careful, however, because the copyright sign does not necessarily have to be present for a work to be considered copyright protected (Cyberbee, nd). So what role does fair use play in copyright law? Fair use allows “an author to make limited use of another author’s work without asking permission” (Nolo: Law for all, 2011). If one uses copyrighted material beyond fair use, it is considered infringement. Counterfeiting is fundamentally a violation of copyright law; however, it has been stated that "the distinction between fair use and infringement can be fuzzy and difficult to define" (United State Copyright Office, 2009). To avoid the risk of infringement, certain guidelines must be followed under the fair use doctrine. First, there are four issues to consider when using copyrighted material under the fair use doctrine: "the purpose of the use, the nature of the work" , the proportion/extent of material used and the effect on marketability” (Newsome, 2000). Purpose of use refers to the reason for which copyrighted material is going to be used (i.e. education). The nature of the work depends on the type of material used. For example, one must ask whether "the copyrighted work, published or unpublished, is the out-of-print copyrighted work and whether the work is factual or artistic" (University of Maryland University College [UMUC], 2011). The next point to consider is the amount of copyrighted material used. However, the quantities allowed depend on the type and length of the material. For example, ten percent or thirty seconds of a song can be used (depending on which is used less) (Information Technology Evaluation Services: Public Schools of North Carolina, 1997).