Is it legal to upload short, publicly available, source files on Stack Exchange to ask about them?
<p>I once asked a question on tex.SE about a (LaTeX) title page template that my university provides for master's theses. </p>

<p>Since the people over at tex.SE require Minimal Working Examples, I uploaded a short document containing the title page template and showing what problem I had with it (you may follow my profile to find the question).</p>

<p>Was this allowed by copyright law? In particular, to my complete layman's mind, it seems like this could be covered under Fair Use.</p>

<p>The university's homepage provides the template without any login, license or copyright notice.</p>

<p>Whether a use of a copyrighted work is defensible under fair use (in the U.S.) is always a case-by-case determination based on the <a href="http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/" rel="nofollow">four fair use factors</a>.</p>

<p>I'm not a lawyer (nor would my opinion be a sure bet even if I were), but generally, your fair use outlook seems reasonably good in this case.</p>

<ul>
<li><em>Purpose and character of your use</em>: You were soliciting advice on how to solve a particular technical problem, the copyrighted work happened to be the context in which you were solving this problem. The quoted portion of the template has become part of a new work with a completely different intent from the original (it's now in a Q&amp;A to help LaTeX authors achieve some layout effect, rather than a template to give university students a starting place when formatting their thesis)</li>
<li><em>Amount and substantiality of the portion taken</em>: You limited your reproduction of the work to only what was necessary to demonstrate the particular technical issue.</li>
<li><em>Effect of the use upon the potential market</em>: The work is given away freely by the university, so I expect your redistribution of the title page is unlikely to have any impact on the demand for the work from the university.</li>
</ul>

<p>That said, only a judge or jury adjudicating an actual lawsuit against your use can definitively accept or deny a fair use defense.</p>

copyright software fair-use