Fair use?

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"Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances." - copyright.gov

Discussing this topic in class got me really thinking. I was so curious to know how serious people are about sampling different things from the internet... and let me tell you it's serious!! But why?

I understand that it's fair use when it's used for educational purposes, but what if I were to create this awesome assignment for school that is open for the public to see and I get quite a bit of recognition for it. But once you use that for your own advantage it is illegal.  In my opinion I think this whole thing is stupid. I do believe in giving credit to it's rightful owner but what ever was created does not belong to them. Going back to originality, people today are very unoriginal everything we use and do is a newer version of something that was done in the past, but is meshed and changed with their own style which makes it unique and it belongs to them. I feel like this is a way for people to express themselves and create cool things from stuff that already exists but because of fair use you cannot benefit from it even with all the hard work you have put into it. In my opinion I don't think fair use is all that fair.

This got me thinking though.. What if I really did get famous from something I sampled from the internet but because of fair use I really can't do anything about it or profit/benefit from it. I guess you just have to be careful what you use and do online because if you do get recognition it might not be worth it!