And certainly, the general public propagates many myths about what can or cannot be used. For example, take a look at this seemingly harmless (and mercifully short) 29-second video posted on YouTube:
You might have missed it, but Prince's classic song, "Let's Go Crazy" was playing in the background. According to Wired magazine, this video "was removed last year after Universal [record company] sent YouTube a takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
But you might have also missed the fact that, "after being taken down for six weeks, the video went back online last year, having now generated about half a million hits." (emphasis added)
Fortunately for budding video directors (like our students) and us, the courts are more recently and more often siding with the creators of such videos, according to the Center for Social Media of American University: "In reviewing the history of fair use litigation, we find that judges return again and again to two key questions:
You might have missed it, but Prince's classic song, "Let's Go Crazy" was playing in the background. According to Wired magazine, this video "was removed last year after Universal [record company] sent YouTube a takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
But you might have also missed the fact that, "after being taken down for six weeks, the video went back online last year, having now generated about half a million hits." (emphasis added)
Fortunately for budding video directors (like our students) and us, the courts are more recently and more often siding with the creators of such videos, according to the Center for Social Media of American University: "In reviewing the history of fair use litigation, we find that judges return again and again to two key questions:
According to Peter Jaszi of American University, "Fair use is like a muscle that needs to be exercised, but people can't exercise it in a climate of fear and uncertainty." I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that if we and our students follow a set of "best practices", not unlike what we already do with written work, we are unlikely to be challenged on legal grounds. Based on the 2 legal questions above and our own previous experience with quoting and paraphrasing, our best practices should then be easy to articulate:
- Did the unlicensed use 'transform' the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than that of the original, or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?
- Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?
- The use of the copyrighted work is transformative.
- The kind and the amount of the copyrighted work used is appropriate for the assignment.
- The author of the copyrighted work is cited.
2 Comments
Hi Spiro,
An interesting (and fun) look at the copyright issue is this video A Fair(y) Use Tale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo
Hiya Kern!
Thanks for the link! Last year I actually contacted Eric Faden about his amazing work because I was wondering how he avoided the issues raised by the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). My worry was that he had to circumvent DVD encryption.
Here's his reply: "Now, in my own case, we developed "A Fair(y) Use Tale" very, VERY carefully knowing that we were directly challenging the most protective and litigious copyright owner on Earth. I was very fortunate to have a top-notch legal team advising me. While DMCA was never a major concern, we avoided its issues by capturing everything from ANALOG sources. DMCA largely protects only against DIGITAL copying so the issue of anti-circumvention became moot."
Amazing stuff for sure! Thanks again for sharing!
Post a Comment