Fair Use School: Response to YouTube's Copyright School Video

This is my winning entry for Public Knowledge's video contest to create a response to YouTube's new "copyright school" video.

While YouTube's video is generally informative about copyright law and user generated video, it falls short when it comes to its description of fair use, an exception to copyright protection that allows you to incorporate copyrighted content into your videos without the permission of the copyright holder. This video describes fair use in an easy-to-understand way, and shows that rather than being a bunch of complicated legalize that ordinary YouTube users could never understand, fair use is a simple principle that you can use as a weapon to fight abusive takedown notices and get your videos restored when they are blocked for copyright infringement.

Note that this video is NOT legal advice, and fair use law is still very nebulous and uncertain--hence my frequent use of the word "probably." While the chances of being sued for filing a counter-notice are low, it should not be done lightly, and you assume any risk that results from taking such action.

For more information on copyright, fair use, and YouTube, please visit my website, http://fairusetube.org, which features a detailed tutorial on how to dispute copyright blocks both under YouTube's automated Content ID system and with a DMCA counter-notice.

Also visit Public Knowledge's website, at http://publicknowledge.org.

Another great resource about fair use and YouTube videos is the Center for Social Media's "Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video," available here: http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/f....

About Me:
I am a 24-year old, third-year law student at Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, VA, where I am the president of the Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law Society and an editor on the Regent Law Review. I developed a strong interest in copyright issues in college, and I hope to pursue a career in copyright and Internet law when I graduate from law school. About a year ago, I started the website http://FairUseTube.org to guide YouTube users through the often confusing copyright dispute process, and to encourage them to stand up for their fair use rights against abusive takedown notices by major media companies.

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  Education

[m6wg4bxw]

I don’t know if my use is transformative. I made a video entitled, “How to pronounce metal band names.” The purpose of the video is to compile quotations of people properly pronouncing band names so that others may and learn from them. The video consists entirely of clips of other videos (mostly interviews). The duration is 515 seconds, using 40 clips, so the average clip length is less than 13 seconds. Is this fair use?

[DarkLordofDebate]

Yes that sounds very transformative to me, so likely fair use.

[Nadav Rotem]

Question :

I created a stop motion video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers song : "I feel love".

I made it as a tribute for the band as I appreciate them very much.

The video is not for sale and I am not makeing money out of it.

Is it considered fair use ?

[DarkLordofDebate]

Yes I think so.

[garetare]

what about youtube poops

[DarkLordofDebate]

Probably fair use, but since you're using probably whole clips its a little iffy.

[NWOtheawakening]

FUCK YOU YOUTUBE!!! FUCK YOU!!! .I.

[DarkLordofDebate]

There's a lawyer in California who runs a website called "counterdmca" who allows you to pay a nominal fee of $1.50 and then use the address of his law firm when filing a counter-notice so you don't reveal your private information. You might want to check that out if this worries you.

[britwigger]

I am presently uploading proof that Doctor Who is fully timelord, showing only two few-second clips of the show to prove it. I am crossing my fingers.

[m6wg4bxw]

Thanks for the response.

[LordOf TheBricks]

I am making LEGO Stop-motions with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings,but some times I use sounds from movie,and there was only one time copy right

[garetare]

i was wondering because if you think about it they dont compete with the origanal and have new meaning. guess it is kinda iffy, i might make a new channel to take my chances