Journalism - Film & Documentaries: Copyright & Video

The Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI) created the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use employees four principles:

1. Employing copyrighted material as the object of social, political, or cultural critique
2. Quoting copyrighted works of popular culture to illustrate an argument or point
3. Capturing copyrighted media content in the process of filming something else
4. Using copyrighted material in a historical sequence

The Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI) has created a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video which "...helps creators, online providers, copyright holders, and others interested in the making of online video interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use." As with other CMSI codes, it includes context and limitations with each of these six best practices:

1. Commenting on or critiquing of copyrighted material
2. Using copyrighted material for illustration or example
3. Capturing copyrighted material incidentally or accidentally
4. Reproducing, reposting, or quoting in order to memorialize, preserve, or rescue an experience, an event, or a cultural phenomenon
5. Copying, restoring, 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 

Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) Statement on Fair Use Best Practices for Media Studies Publishing lists four categories, including principles and limitations, that might fall under fair use:

1. Use of copyrighted material to illustrate historical, theoretical, or aesthetic arguments
2. Use of copyright material to stimulate discussion
3. Multimedia scholarship, including video essays, DVD extras, and blog posts
4. Use of copyrighted material when bundled with scholarship and teaching materials

Society for Cinema and Media Studies' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use in Teaching for Film and Media Educators identifies five broad principles for use of film and media in the U. S. classrooms, setting limitations and clarifications regarding certain uses:

1. Classroom Screenings
2. Broadcast Recordings
3. Derivative Works
4. Online Distance Education
5. Public Domain

Using Online Video for Academic Purpose

The University of Rhode Island's Guide: Fair Use and Copyright for Online Education has some excellent examples of proper and improper uses of video for online education.

Students creating mashups of copyrighted movies?

Recut, Reframe, Recycle: Quoting Copyrighted Material in User-Generated Video  The Center for Media & Social Impact with American University's Washington College of Law's recent study: "...shows that many uses of copyrighted material in today's online videos are eligible for fair use consideration."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF):  A Guide to YouTube Removals - A "what to do" guide if you've created a YouTube video that has been removed because of potential copyright violations.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States digital rights management (DRM) law enacted October 28, 1998 by then-President Bill Clinton. The intent behind DMCA was to create an updated version of copyright laws to deal with the special challenges of regulating digital material. It prohibits "circumventing" digital rights management and other "technological measures" used to protect copyrighted works.

Every three years the U.S. Copyright Office convenes a "rulemaking" session to consider granting exemptions to the DMCA's ban on circumvention to mitigate the harms the law has caused to legitimate non-infringing uses of copyrighted materials.

• Until 2009, only film and media studies professors could circumvent DVD encription for fair use purposes.

• In 2009, that category was expanded to include all college and university professors, film and media stuies students, documentary filmmakers and noncommercial creators of music video.

• In 2012, the Librarian of Congress expanded it further, covering K-12 educators, all college students, multimedia e-book authors, and professionals who have been commissioned to make videos for nonprofit purposes.  It also permits breaking encryption on online content, not just DVDs.  See: Federal Register Notice Containing Librarian's Determination and Final Rule (Oct 26, 2012) and Section 1201 Exemptions to Prohibition Against Circumvention of Technological Measures Protecting Copyrighted Works.