Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation

The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation helps ensure that the subjects, products, and tools of scholarship will continue to be accessible despite evolving technology. The code expresses a consensus view of how fair use—the legal doctrine allowing the use of copyrighted materials without permission from the copyright holder under certain circumstances—applies to core, recurring situations in software preservation. Fair use has become an increasingly vital tool for permitting cultural heritage institutions and their users to make scholarly and pedagogical uses of their collections with due respect for the interests of copyright holders. This work was made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Aufderheide et al., Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation, Association of Research Libraries (2018)