How is that that video of all the prisoners dancing is fair use and mine isn't?
December 9, 2011 4:21 PM Subscribe
Youtube keeps removing my video for copyright violation, is there any way around this?
So I work for a non-profit that offers dance classes for locals with the tuition going towards helping underprivileged women and children. They also participate in Thrill the World, a synchronized dance party to Michael Jackson's Thriller. We have had no problem keeping the performance videos on YouTube.
The one that keeps getting kicked off is a video of the group in class dancing in front of the studio mirror with Thriller in the background. The audio is taken directly from the video and as such is not suitable for listening and includes lots of shouting from the instructor. In other words this video is strictly for instructional purposes.
I have filled out the standard YouTube "my video is exempt from copyright for the following reason" form but it was not put back up. Am I confused about the copyright laws allowing instructional materials? Am I doing something wrong that I could change so I could get the video back up on YouTube? Is there any other site that I could put the video on that could embed easily (no plugins, long story) into wordpress? The video is essentially 200 times the size to upload to wordpress directly so that is out of the question.
So I work for a non-profit that offers dance classes for locals with the tuition going towards helping underprivileged women and children. They also participate in Thrill the World, a synchronized dance party to Michael Jackson's Thriller. We have had no problem keeping the performance videos on YouTube.
The one that keeps getting kicked off is a video of the group in class dancing in front of the studio mirror with Thriller in the background. The audio is taken directly from the video and as such is not suitable for listening and includes lots of shouting from the instructor. In other words this video is strictly for instructional purposes.
I have filled out the standard YouTube "my video is exempt from copyright for the following reason" form but it was not put back up. Am I confused about the copyright laws allowing instructional materials? Am I doing something wrong that I could change so I could get the video back up on YouTube? Is there any other site that I could put the video on that could embed easily (no plugins, long story) into wordpress? The video is essentially 200 times the size to upload to wordpress directly so that is out of the question.
I think you're misunderstanding the "instructional use" prong of fair use. I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is that it covers things like art history professors using pieces of poems in the powerpoint presentations they show to their class. I don't think it makes posting a performance of an entire song on the internet legal just because you filmed it during a class. You may want to do some more research on this topic to determine whether what you're trying to do actually falls under fair use. It's possible that you and the prisoners are both violating fair use, and it's just a fluke that their video hasn't been taken down yet.
posted by decathecting at 4:40 PM on December 9, 2011 [9 favorites]
posted by decathecting at 4:40 PM on December 9, 2011 [9 favorites]
GigaOM (and the EFF) have some tips.
Basically, I wouldn't get my hopes up. The DMCA system deliberately stacks the deck against the little guy and allows a presumption of infringement that you have to disprove. Guilty until proven innocent, etc. It's questionable whether fair use still has any validity under this system, where takedowns are often automatic.
Yeah, there's a lot of other infringing stuff out there (or potential fair use) that doesn't fall victim to this, but that's more of a technical issue than a legal one.
posted by dhartung at 4:43 PM on December 9, 2011
Basically, I wouldn't get my hopes up. The DMCA system deliberately stacks the deck against the little guy and allows a presumption of infringement that you have to disprove. Guilty until proven innocent, etc. It's questionable whether fair use still has any validity under this system, where takedowns are often automatic.
Yeah, there's a lot of other infringing stuff out there (or potential fair use) that doesn't fall victim to this, but that's more of a technical issue than a legal one.
posted by dhartung at 4:43 PM on December 9, 2011
Is there any other site that I could put the video on that could embed easily (no plugins, long story) into wordpress?
Have you tried Vimeo?
posted by Tandem Affinity at 5:38 PM on December 9, 2011 [1 favorite]
Have you tried Vimeo?
posted by Tandem Affinity at 5:38 PM on December 9, 2011 [1 favorite]
Decathecting has it. This sounds really unlikely to fall under fair use for "instructional" use (which may be one, but isn't the only determining factor in fair use). Wildcrdj's suggestion of contacting the copyright owner is probably the best solution, but, having worked with Michael Jackson's & Rod Temperton's people in the past, I wouldn't get my hopes up.
posted by fishmasta at 10:22 PM on December 9, 2011
posted by fishmasta at 10:22 PM on December 9, 2011
Get a local indy band to record you a cover version of Thriller and use that on your next instructional video.
posted by flabdablet at 4:40 AM on December 10, 2011
posted by flabdablet at 4:40 AM on December 10, 2011
The Thrill the World videos stay up because the TtW organizers have the required permission to use the music. Your public performance is covered under that blanket.
Your video of in-studio practice is not covered by that blanket, because it is not part of the public performance. It's merely a recording of your class going through their practice. Thus, your in-studio video can be held to be in violation of copyright.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:15 AM on December 10, 2011
Your video of in-studio practice is not covered by that blanket, because it is not part of the public performance. It's merely a recording of your class going through their practice. Thus, your in-studio video can be held to be in violation of copyright.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:15 AM on December 10, 2011
Get a local indy band to record you a cover version of Thriller and use that on your next instructional video.
You would still need to get a mechanical license to publish the recording, but this is a compulsory license and much easier to obtain (through an organization like Harry Fox or RightsFlow) than the master recording license from whoever owns the rights to Thriller.
IANAL, not legal advice, etc.
posted by malocchio at 7:47 AM on December 10, 2011
You would still need to get a mechanical license to publish the recording, but this is a compulsory license and much easier to obtain (through an organization like Harry Fox or RightsFlow) than the master recording license from whoever owns the rights to Thriller.
IANAL, not legal advice, etc.
posted by malocchio at 7:47 AM on December 10, 2011
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Or you can file a counter-claim notification, but that is a legal action and I would read all the info there before taking that route.
In general, under the DMCA YouTube is obligated to take down when a claim is filed if the copyright owner requests it, and remedies would be to get the copyright owner to reverse the action or to file the official counter-claim.
The copyright owner can take down some or all videos that use their content, so they may for example leave the prisoner video you refer to up while still taking yours down.
"Fair Use" claims basically would have to be resolved through legal channels.
(This is all under the current, DMCA - style provisions. Under SOPA things might change for the worse)
Also this assumes US copyright/uploader, not sure how this works in Europe or otherwise.
posted by wildcrdj at 4:28 PM on December 9, 2011 [1 favorite]