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Copywrong?! Could your online video be breaking "the law"?
Is your seat belt on? Prepare to ruminate...it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
"In February, last year Comedy Central's parent company Viacom served YouTube and Google with a lawsuit seeking more than a billion dollars in damages. The crime? Copyright infringement. The company says that YouTube contained over 160,000 unathorized clips from programmes Viacom owns, including "South Park" and "The Colbert Report." In cases like this, the copyright issue seems clear, but there are other circumstances where the dividing lines are blurry. Video mashups that use multiple sources, lipsynching videos, and even clips where amateurs re-stage famous sketches, could all be on shaky legal ground.
"If you're using someone else's video, music or images, or even someone else's script without permission, then you could be infringing copyright," says Gavin McGinty.
"It doesn't particularly matter if the clip is short: "Copyright infringement is copying a substantial part of a work, either in a qualitative or quantitative sense," he says. "For example, you could put a five-second clip from "The Daily Show" in a video mashup. If that five seconds was the funniest part, that could be seen as substantial."
"The rule of thumb is, if you're likely to be able to spot the origin of the source material, then it's likely to be a substantial part. A valid defense may be 'fair dealing', which is similar but by no means identical tothe American concept of 'fair use'.
"Fair dealing enables you to use small parts of works for personal, noncommercial purposes. The classic examples are research and private study. That wouldn't normally cover posting video online, though. The American version, 'fair use', is so much wider than the UK version."
"In this case, it may depend on where a lawsuit is raised. "You have the issue that the content is accessible in any country in the world. Big media companies have clearance departments to make sure that everything shown in a work is cleared everywhere it's shown."
as gleaned from a recent "Future, Media with Passion" Future Publishing Ltd article
by Gavin McGinty
Technology and Commercial Lawyer at Pinsent Masons
www.pinsentmasons.com
imho this is currently a bigger issue than "climate change" with as many or more future ramifications for culture, creativity and the free expression of ideas.
other valuable resources:
http://freeculture.org/
http://www.lessig.org/
among others I'm sure =D Is your seat belt on? Prepare to ruminate...it's gonna be a bumpy ride. ... more -
The Age of Aquarius - Hair
My GOD, I must have watched this movie "zillions of times" when I was a teen. I even gathered groups of friends to go again and again to the movies. This is indeed a vision for the future. This vision should be for Today if those that are screwing up our Past and our Today would care about learning something in life.
...and this is ladies and gentlemans and any anything you want to be, a master piece of theater and music. Thanks for the geniuses of theater, film and music production. My GOD, I must have watched this movie "zillions of times" when I was a teen. I even gathered groups of friends to go again ... more -
Wonder Woman is finally written by a woman
This woman's own tale is heroic! From academic achiever (graduated high school at 16) to hairdresser to author...congratulations, Gail Simone and Wonder Woman! This woman's own tale is heroic! From academic achiever (graduated high school at 16) to hairdresser to author...congratulations,... more
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An Invitation to Young Artists
Hello everyone! I am Niccolo Vitug, a Filipino poet, and I have an invitation for you. Let us create a Multimedia Anthology of Young World Artists together! Through our artistic works (creative writing, theatrical productions, audio and video productions, visual arts, dance, etc.), let us present the possibility of bringing harmony in the world by the acts of creating and sharing our passions with each other.
Pass this message to all of your friends who truly believe that their craft can make a difference in the world today. Lets communicate here on current.com to workshop our works, and discuss how well produce, distribute and share the work with others.
My college batch mates and I (we studied in the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines), together with our mentor Francis Tanglao-Aguas, were able to create Tibuk-Tibok: Festival Anthology of Young Filipino Writers from scratch. All that we had back then were dreams, and our creativity. In the process, we came up with capital, and were able to produce and distribute the book internationally. Now that this new project will be on a worldwide scope, Im sure that we can really do things even better!
Ill hear from you soon!
Niccolo Vitug
niccolo.vitug@gmail.com Hello everyone! I am Niccolo Vitug, a Filipino poet, and I have an invitation for you. Let us create a Multimedia Anthology of Young W... more -
Write a novel....in a month?
November is the month I lose all of my friends to the insanity that is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I considered trying it again this year, but I've already tried and failed twice, so I decided to save my sanity and skip it--1,666 words a day is a lot more than it sounds like. November is the month I lose all of my friends to the insanity that is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I considered trying i... more
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Write A Novel In A Month
It's the start of National Novel Writing Month, a nonprofit literary effort that encourages participants to write a 50,000-word novel in one month. It's the start of National Novel Writing Month, a nonprofit literary effort that encourages participants to write a 50,000-word n... more
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Science fiction short stories.
Have any of you read Writers of the Future, published by Galaxy Press? They are on their 23rd annual issue. The authors are the winners of a writing contest and one for artists who are chosen to illustrate the stories. The stories are great. I own the entire set and reread often. There are few places to read short stories, so I keep up with them and look to see if the writers develop a career. Have any of you read Writers of the Future, published by Galaxy Press? They are on their 23rd annual issue. The authors are the win... more
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Creative Writing
