Urgent: Lawyers please help! (copyright stuff)
Ok, I need to record public footage (like from PBS) for a DVD for business. Profit will be made. Is video shorter than 2 seconds fair game for use in this situation? I heard that a video of such short length is fine to use, but I can't risk it. Thanks.
-ipod
-ipod
Comments
I would call the producer or production company, explain your situation, and ask if you can use the footage.
The chuckleheads of the world call this "fair use."
And no, this wouldn't be fair use. But if it's public, you can probably get the rights to it fairly easily.
Furthermore, depending on the volume you're going to sell, you may be able just to get away with it.
Originally posted by ipodandimac
I heard that a video of such short length is fine to use, but I can't risk it. Thanks.
If you "can't risk it," I would call a lawyer and not ask on AI. As suggested above, the lawyer will probably tell you to check with PBS. In other words: better safe than sorry.
Escher
(who just finished law school, but still has to take the bar exam, and thus isn't a lawyer quite yet)
Originally posted by Splinemodel
"fair game. . ."
The chuckleheads of the world call this "fair use."
Maybe some chuckleheads do, but fair use has only ever held water for personal, educational and non-profit use, and for commentary and criticism.
He said "for profit," and that makes any fair use argument pretty hard (but not impossible, or magazine reviewers couldn't quote passages from books).
But if it's public, you can probably get the rights to it fairly easily.
If it's truly public (and it sounds like it isn't) then there are no rights to ask for. Public domain means anyone can use it for anything, without restriction.
Furthermore, depending on the volume you're going to sell, you may be able just to get away with it.
Certainly, there are chuckleheads who think so.
I'll ditto Escher's advice: Do this the right way and talk to a lawyer and/or PBS.
When studying Aeronautical Engineering at university we wanted to put prints of Dastardly & Muttley cartoons on our T-shirts and sell them (for a small profit) to all the students in the Department. We contacted Hanna-Barbera and asked (1) for their permission, and (2) for the size of their fee. They laughed, and said you can do it for nothing, as long as you don't make more than 100.
So, if you ask nicely and convince the copyright holder that you're only going to use their intellectual property a limited number of times, you might get a result.
Originally posted by åsen
off topic,
When studying Aeronautical Engineering at university we wanted to put prints of Dastardly & Muttley cartoons on our T-shirts and sell them (for a small profit) to all the students in the Department. We contacted Hanna-Barbera and asked (1) for their permission, and (2) for the size of their fee. They laughed, and said you can do it for nothing, as long as you don't make more than 100.
So, if you ask nicely and convince the copyright holder that you're only going to use their intellectual property a limited number of times, you might get a result.
Now that's cool!
Archive.org
Any derivative works that you produce using these films are yours to perform, publish, reproduce, sell, or distribute in any way you wish without any limitations.
Originally posted by ipodandimac
Ok, I need to record public footage (like from PBS) for a DVD for business. Profit will be made. Is video shorter than 2 seconds fair game for use in this situation? I heard that a video of such short length is fine to use, but I can't risk it. Thanks.
-ipod
Unless the material that you want to copy is in the public domain (since this is PBS material this is doubful) there are four major considerations for the applicability of fair use.
Since you're only using 2 minutes, you might have de minis fair use protection. See:
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyrigh...pter9/9-b.html
However, fair use usually favors non-commercial versus commercial use (the most critical factor of the four, in my opinion). I would consult a lawyer or contact the copyright holder and get permission from them if I was you.
Bart: Isn't this vandalism dad?
Homer: That's for the courts to decide son. That's for the courts to decide.