www.cmsimpact.org/remix
FAIR USE IN
ONLINE VIDEO
An Introduction to
the Code of Best Practices
in Fair Use For Online Video
FAIR USE AND COPYRIGHT
Remix Culture Video
• What is copyright?
What is Copyright?
• Why does it exist?
COPYRIGHT
• Provides incentives for people to
create culture
• Gives creators some control over
their work
• But also puts some limits on that
control
• What would happen if there
were no such thing as copyright?
• What would happen if there were
no limits to copyright?
No protection for creators’ work
stops creativity
BUT
Too much protection also stifles
new makers’ creativity
Copyright law has built in several ways to
maintain BALANCE:
• Limitations on the amount of time something can
be copyrighted
• Special exemptions (these include for educators,
librarians, public broadcasting, the blind, and other
special cases)
• Fair Use
FAIR USE
Section of copyright law that protects
the rights of creators who want to
incorporate other people’s copyrighted
material into their work.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
• Protects Freedom of Speech
• Safety valve that prevents censorship
Why is Fair Use Important?
• It gives artists the right to critique or build
on existing culture
• Culture only grows where we are all allowed
to repurpose other people’s work
HOW DO I KNOW WHEN TO
APPLY FAIR USE?
Copyright laws asks two questions:
• Did the unlicensed use “transform” the copyrighted
material by using it for a different purpose?
• Was the amount and nature of material taken
appropriate?
BEST PRACTICES
• When judges make decisions about what is fair use, they
give major consideration to what people actually
practicing in the field think is fair use, or what their best
practices are.
Best Practices
• Video-makers are best suited to figure out what is fair use
in our field, because we are both copyright owners and
creators who want to use copyrighted material
Code of Best Practices in
Online Video
Category 1: Using copyrighted material as the
object of a social, political or cultural critique
From Current’s Target Women
Category 2: Using copyrighted material for
illustration or example
Evolution of Dance
Category 3: Capturing copyrighted material
incidentally or accidentally (Incidental Use)
Let’s Go Crazy
Category 4: Reproducing, reposting or quoting
in order to memorialize, preserve, or rescue an
experience, an event or a cultural
phenomenon.
Hurricane Katrina Fundraising Telethon
Category 5: Copying, reposting and recirculating
a work or part of a work for purposes of
launching a discussion
Feminism by Whirlpool on Feministing
Category 6: Quoting in order to recombine
elements to make a new work that depends for
its meaning on (often unlikely) relationships
between the elements
Buffy vs Edward--Twilight Remixed by
Rebellious Pixels
Fair Use and Music: It’s Tricky
RIP Michael Jackson (Tribute)
COMMON FAIR USE MYTHS
* If I’m not making money off it, it’s fair use
* If I AM making money off it (or trying to), it’s NOT
fair use
* Fair use can’t be entertaining
* If I try to license material, I’ve given up my chance
to claim fair use
FAIR USE AND COPYRIGHT
Remix Culture Video
www.cmsimpact.org/remix