I have been assigned countless PowerPoint presentations and dance projects where I just use any music or photos I can find, completely unaware of the possibility of me breaking the law. Third grade history teachers and sixth grade dance teachers don’t mention the legal repercussions of using any material we can find, especially after we leave the protected environment that is grade school. In the business world, using any material we please could result in expensive legal fees, fines, and bad publicity. That’s why it is so important to learn all of the rules for borrowing copyrighted information. Unfortunately, this concept took a little bit of time for me to grasp because I’m so used to not thinking through these strict rules.
Currently, US Copyright laws give legal protection for almost all forms of creativity, including text, photos, and musical compositions. In order to use copyrighted material, you must be the copyright owner, have received written permission from the owner, or be using material in the public domain. Schools, teachers, and other educational establishments have a “fair use” provision in copyright law that allow circumstantially limited use of copyrighted materials without receiving permission. There are four factors very important to whether fair use is applicable: “the purpose and character of use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes”, “the nature of the copyrighted work”, “the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole”, and the effect of the copyrighted work on the potential market. Only the courts can determine whether a particular case counted as fair use, but these factors were a consensus of the conditions when fair use should apply or when permission is required. If the work is not in the public domain or used as fair use, then usually payment is required to receive permission to use the copyrighted material. It takes many years (an individual’s lifetime plus 70 years) for a copyright to be invalid, so copyright owners have a lot of time to make money off of people using their creative work. I definitely recommend getting a copyright any time your ideas take form, because you don’t want somebody else getting credit or making money off of your imagination.
The Disney Parody: A Fair(y) Use Tale video definitely helped to explain the rules of fair use to me in an amusing and understandable way, though I did have to rewind sometimes to catch what the characters had said.
The Disney Parody: A Fair(y) Use Tale video definitely helped to explain the rules of fair use to me in an amusing and understandable way, though I did have to rewind sometimes to catch what the characters had said.
Disney video:
University of Texas Document:
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