Fair Use

What is fair use and how do I make use of it (sorry for the pun).

First, let me start with, “I am not a lawyer. I am a photographer/videographer who has been shooting for many a decade.”

Fair Use: is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work¹.

So what does this mean for me?

This means that you can use a photo, video, audio, etc., as long as you are doing some form of reporting (including making your own commentary about the subject), criticizing it (as in criticizing Kanye’s comments about slavery)² or creating a parody of it, think of Weird Al Yankovich or the late night shows that mock… pretty much anything.

Some issues

• As with most anything Copyright protected, there are many grey areas
  • With music & video, the length of usage is almost random. One judge may say 20 seconds is infringement while another may say 10 seconds is³.
  • With photography it depends on how much you see and/or how long it is visible⁴.

Play it safe

Our recommendation is to play it safe. Err on the side of caution. While this may not help, it may take some sting off… if you are criticizing something, apologize in case you offend someone. You get the idea.

You can also, try to get the actual owner of the subject to give permission for use as well.

Notes:

1. From an article on Stanford Universities website – “What is fair use“
2. Be very careful these days of who you “critique” as we are in a very litigious world, especially in the US, and you may end up in court defending your comments.
3. fair use is very subjective. It’s so case-specific, in fact, it’s decided on a case-by-case basis. From – Copyright.com
4. From the MIT Libraries

So, what what are some your horror stories of people getting into trouble? Let us know in the comments.

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