Comments on: Great video discussion about Fair Use on Seesmic. http://www.wiretotheear.com/2008/07/21/great-video-discussion-about-fair-use-on-seesmic/ Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:22:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Chris Smith http://www.wiretotheear.com/2008/07/21/great-video-discussion-about-fair-use-on-seesmic/comment-page-1/#comment-2396 Chris Smith Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:01:36 +0000 http://www.wiretotheear.com/?p=805#comment-2396 I cannot believe how ridiculous Fair Use laws are. I can completely understand if someone is stealing copyrighted work as their own or making a ton of money off of it, but If you use an "8 second" part of a song to describe it or give someone a taste of it on your blog or podcast these labels should be extremely happy about the free publicity. Of course the "legalese" of the way that the law is written make it completely open to interpretation: "the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole" This is what causes many of the RIAA takedowns on YouTube and such. I think that they need to make this more clear so bloggers and podcasters can use copyrighted material fairly (the way that it was intended). I think that it is terrible that we have to figure out what the law means by trial and error. I cannot believe how ridiculous Fair Use laws are. I can completely understand if someone is stealing copyrighted work as their own or making a ton of money off of it, but If you use an “8 second” part of a song to describe it or give someone a taste of it on your blog or podcast these labels should be extremely happy about the free publicity.

Of course the “legalese” of the way that the law is written make it completely open to interpretation:

“the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole”

This is what causes many of the RIAA takedowns on YouTube and such. I think that they need to make this more clear so bloggers and podcasters can use copyrighted material fairly (the way that it was intended).

I think that it is terrible that we have to figure out what the law means by trial and error.

]]> By: Gavroche http://www.wiretotheear.com/2008/07/21/great-video-discussion-about-fair-use-on-seesmic/comment-page-1/#comment-1558 Gavroche Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:28:15 +0000 http://www.wiretotheear.com/?p=805#comment-1558 Thanks for this! This is very important info for all musicians! While there are a number exceptions to copyright law allowing the fair use of what would otherwise be exclusive rights, there is no concrete answer of what constitutes fair use. Rather, the court has a multi factor balancing test to consider, including whether the work is used for commercial purposes, educational purposes, and news/public matters. For copyright fair use, the court will also look at how much of the work is used. The notion that if you only sample 8secs so it must be fair use is wrong. There is no concrete answer of how much time constitutes fair use. But, if the use is considered "de minimis" then you're cool. A few seconds might be considered fair use, unless those 2secs are very recognizable, like the theme from Jaws. For trademark fair use, there is descriptive fair use -- if using the mark in describing something is the only way to describe it, you're cool! Thanks for this! This is very important info for all musicians! While there are a number exceptions to copyright law allowing the fair use of what would otherwise be exclusive rights, there is no concrete answer of what constitutes fair use. Rather, the court has a multi factor balancing test to consider, including whether the work is used for commercial purposes, educational purposes, and news/public matters. For copyright fair use, the court will also look at how much of the work is used. The notion that if you only sample 8secs so it must be fair use is wrong. There is no concrete answer of how much time constitutes fair use. But, if the use is considered “de minimis” then you’re cool. A few seconds might be considered fair use, unless those 2secs are very recognizable, like the theme from Jaws. For trademark fair use, there is descriptive fair use — if using the mark in describing something is the only way to describe it, you’re cool!

]]>