Federal Laws

In addition to constitutional protections, federal law also includes specific statutory safeguards for both free expression and privacy.

• Right to Free Expression: Because the First Amendment prohibits Congress from making laws that abridge freedom of speech, federal statutes that implicate rights to free expression must have a buffer to safeguard constitutional rights. The federal copyright law is a good example. While copyright law provides a set of six exclusive, limited-time rights to copyright holders to serve as an incentive for them to create works, these rights are limited by the fair use doctrine that is delineated in section 107 of the Copyright Act. The fair use doctrine guarantees individuals the right to use copyrighted materials, without seeking a copyright holder’s permission, for activities such as parody, satire, criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research, and transformative works. Fair use guarantees a "breathing space," or buffer, that helps to reconcile the tension that would otherwise exist between copyright law and the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of expression.
• Right to Privacy: Although the United States does not have a comprehensive, national privacy law, federal law does protect specific types of data or transactions. Separate statutes safeguard the privacy of telephone, email, Voice over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), and other electronic communications, financial records, consumer credit information, government records, motor vehicle records, student education records, medical and health records, and video rental records.