Q. Does fair use always apply the same way to everything, including Creative Commons materials or licensed materials in databases?
As part of her copyrights, a copyright holder can license her work for whatever specific uses she likes. Creative Commons (CC) licensing provides a way for authors to announce publicly that their work is available for certain broad types of uses without specific permission, with certain conditions. Works under a CC license can be used in whatever ways and on whatever terms the license specifies, in addition to the uses available under fair use. On the other end of the spectrum, a license can also limit a user’s fair use rights, so users need to be more careful when using materials governed by a license, such as electronic journal articles.