Fair Use for YouTube & MySpace Users

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A few years back, documentary filmmakers didn't know what copyrighted clips they could safely include in their films as a 'fair use'. Now there's a well-accepted set of 'best practices' that establishes rational, predictable rules. The same folks who brought rationality to the world of documentary filmmaking are about to work their magic in the user-generated online content space, including user-created videos on YouTube and user-created music on My Space. They said: 'Nonprofessional, online video now accounts for a sizeable portion of all broadband traffic, with much of the work weaving in copyrighted material ... A new culture is emerging — remix culture, an unpredictable mix of the witty, the vulgar, the politically and culturally critical, and the just plain improbable ... What's fair in online-video use of copyrighted material? The healthy growth of this new mode of expression is at risk of becoming a casualty of the efforts of copyright owners to limit wholesale redistribution of their content on sites like YouTube, and of videomakers' own uncertainties about the law.'"

Obligitory youtube link

[dknj]

Disney teaches copyright [youtube.com]

dk-

OVER 30 SECONDS!!!!

[RockMFR]

So taking a 5-second clip of Dragon Ball Z and changing the play speed to create a 5-minute masterpiece is fair use, right?

Re:OVER 30 SECONDS!!!!

[rootofevil]

no, because then youd be infringing on their patent on 'a process or system for drawing out 4 minutes of story or animated tale into a 30 minute episode'

its in there, i just looked it up.