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This document, the Fair Use Act, outlines the ways to defend the use of a piece of copyrighted material in a new piece.  It lists some examples that pass as fair use, such as “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching…scholarship, or research.”  It goes on to list and briefly explain the four points to test a possible fair use case with.  They are the purpose and character of the use, nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion used, and the effect of the use on the potential market for the original work. 

This document is useful to my project in determining whether or not my project is a case of fair use or not.  Important to note is that this act does not necessarily make it legal for me to use the copyrighted work, but rather to defend myself in court.  I can use the four points to test each aspect of my play. Although more detailed research would be needed to completely defend my work, a brief possible overview of the points would be as follows: 1) to parody the song Hotel California in an interesting way through a play, 2) a creative, fictional work [though it has been shown in previous court cases that this point is not important when considering parodies], 3) a good amount is used, but it is arguable whether or not it is an amount necessary to “conjure up” the original work, 4) there is little to no effect on the original work’s market as plays and songs are generally considered separate markets.