Folsom v. Marsh

A seminal 1841 case in United States copyright law fair use which established the four factors for analysis later set out in the United States Copyright Act of 1976 Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 - "Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use."

The case was decided by Justice Story, and was reported by his son William Wetmore Story. It concerned a biography of George Washington using his papers and letters.

What the case was about

Justice Story briefly set out the facts of the case in the second paragraph of his judgment. It concerned two works about President Washington. The first was a 12 volume work, the first volume of which was a life of George Washington by a Mr Sparks (from which no copying was alleged) and the other 11 volumes consisted of writings and letters etc. with explanatory notes and some illustrations by the editor. There were nearly 7000 pages in total in the 12 volumes. The 2 volume work of the defendants consisted of 866 duodecimal pages which consisted of a Biography of Washington written by Rev. Charles Upham told using the letters and papers extracted from the last 11 volumes of the work by Mr Sparks.