What constitutes fair use?

[thewaever]

Hi all,

What is fair use of copyrighted material?

I just finished watching a Movie Bob review & the disclaimer at the end got me wondering about that. Specifically, I'm thinking about the musician Pogo. He takes samples of movies, mostly Disney movies, & remixes them to produce a new song. His work is really good. Check him out if you haven't already.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that his work is covered under fair use. For example, I'm pretty sure if an artist opened an exhibition of New York Times collages, that the New York Times couldn't sue him. Unfortunately, that is exactly what Disney did to Pogo.

So my question is: Is Pogo using copyrighted material in a way that is covered under fair use?

 

[Simple Bluff]

I think if whatever you are using isn't for profit, and you acknowledge that the origonal doesn't belong to you, it's fair use.

Was Pogo selling his music?

 

[thewaever]

He is now, but when Disney sued him (which was maybe 3 or 4 years ago) I don't think he was.

He definitely made sure to credit Disney & make a note as to which movie he was sampling from. That was half the charm.

 

[thewaever]

So my question is: Is Pogo using copyrighted material in a way that is covered under fair use?

He is making money off of somebody elses work and not paying them anything. That is most definatly not covered under fair use as it is not fair use. Fair use would be something as a source for a report with proper sourcing.

Do you work for the Office of Redundancy Department? lol, sorry, jk. I couldn't resist.

 

[Esotera]

I think it's 10% of a song's length, or something around that, if you're sampling. For a book it would probably be no more than a chapter. For a movie, a short clip of a few minutes.

Basically, the more material you use, the harder it gets to defend.

 

[BonsaiK]

Hi all,

What is fair use of copyrighted material?

I just finished watching a Movie Bob review & the disclaimer at the end got me wondering about that. Specifically, I'm thinking about the musician Pogo. He takes samples of movies, mostly Disney movies, & remixes them to produce a new song. His work is really good. Check him out if you haven't already.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that his work is covered under fair use. For example, I'm pretty sure if an artist opened an exhibition of New York Times collages, that the New York Times couldn't sue him. Unfortunately, that is exactly what Disney did to Pogo.

So my question is: Is Pogo using copyrighted material in a way that is covered under fair use?

WARNING: actual answer to your question follows.

Fair Use changes depending on what that "use" is.

In the case of an academic essay, it's considered to quote sections of a text under "fair use". Media such as journalists can also use images, sound etc under fair use for reporting and such in cases where it would be hard not to report without those images, sound etc. In these cases, they can't use the whole body of a work, they're restricted to a small portion.

In terms of making a creative work, artists wanting to remix or redesign without permission can take whatever they want as long as it is not considered a "recognisable portion". If you think about it, this is basically another way of saying "don't get caught", so the short answer to your question is "no". If it wasn't, Disney would not have the right of veto that they obviously do.

 

[Matt_LRR]

Fair Use [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use]

the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:
1.the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2.the nature of the copyrighted work;
3.the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4.the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

That is, are you making fun of it, teaching with it, using it for news, or criticizing/commenting on it? Then you're covered by fair use.

However, In determining that, the court will consider the purose for which it was used, whether or not and the extent to which you profited from it (though profit DOES NOT by itself negate fair use), the nature of the work being used, and the extent to which your use stood to damage the potential profit of the original.

So, there's a lot to know about what you can and can not get away with.

-m