Copyright and Fair Use

Political campaigns have been busily clipping out snippets of news coverage and building them into campaign videos. And the TV networks have just as busily been sending demands to YouTube and other video sites to remove those videos as violation of copyright. Only problem: they’re not violations of copyright. They’re fully within the umbrella of Fair Use—the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment in some cases. Learn more at the Center’s Fair Use site. Read more...

Once upon a time, a man named Vander Ark was devoted to the world of Harry Potter. He created an online reference source, often quoting or paraphrasing directly from J.K. Rowling's books; the source was widely appreciated, including by Rowling herself. Then he decided to publish it in book form. J.K. Rowling sued, and he defended himself with the copyright doctrine of Fair Use. And he lost. The judge found that he had taken too much of Rowling's creative work.Read more...

We were happy to participate in the Total Recut Video Remix Challenge. Just recently the winners were announced. Read more...

In June Stephen Colbert viewed McCain's delivery of a speech in front of a green screen as a request for mashup artists and remixers to "make McCain exciting." (A green screen for those of you less tech- savvy is a mashup-makers dream come true, allowing artists to add a backdrop of nearly anything they can dream up, or rather "mash up.") The result was a collection of funny, poignant, and often critical videos drawing attention t Read more...

We had two great Fair Use events at UFVA's conference in Colorado Springs this year. The Center's Pat Aufderheide and Maura Ugarte presented on the panel Copyright, Fair Use, and Production Teaching: What You Need to Know. Read more...