I’m a bit late in posting about a new, very important resource. I wanted to review the document before posting. Based on the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, The Center for Social Media at American University has continued to help content creators identify and express what fair use means in creating online video. Now, first, “online video” could mean anything, right? And, in a certain sense, it does mean anything you create to put online. Copyright law applies equally to any kind of content. But CSM has identified the new phenomena of mash-up and remix video that is ballooning along with YouTube, etc. Watch a short video on remix culture>>

Like the Documentary Filmmakers’ Fair Use document, this one has areas of general fair use. Some overlap those in the documentary area, but others are particular to the remix/mash-up culture. Here is an overview that is in no way a substitute for sitting your arse down and actually reading this short, insightful and beautifully written document. If you want to utilize fair use, you need to understand what it is and how it is applied. The general areas of fair use covered are:

1. Commenting on or critiquing copyrighted material
2. Using copyrighted material for illustration or example
3. Capturing copyrighted material accidentally or incidentally
4. Reproducing, reposting, or quoting in order to memorialize, preserve, or rescue an experience, an event, or a cultural phenomenon
5. Copying, reposting, and recirculating a work or part of a work for purposes of launching a discussion
6. Quoting in order to recombine elements to make a new work that depends for its meaning on (often unlikely) relationships between the elements

Read Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video>>