What do you think?

STYLZ

STYLZ

Well-known member
So I was sitting here, contemplating life, watching a little BBC or Reuters news clip about the Fallujah situation going on right now and what I got from it was pretty profound to me. So I thought about how I would like to make a video about what I got out of it and post it on youtube. Then I thought "What if this video becomes big on youtube and the BBC or Reuters saw this and got mad and took me to court?" A lot of bad things could happen to me for copyright infringement or whatever. What if the video didn't become big but some new super algorithm/software program allowed the law or the company to track me down easily due to how powerful technology/information aquisition has become(enn-esss-eyy)? I literally am too afraid to post up an obscure news clip unless I pay big bucks. Never felt like this before. Anyone else feel like this? Is this a new era where our digital freedoms disappear? If so.. it didn't last long. Now in no way am I advocating piracy/copyright infringement. If someone is too afraid to post some obscure news video in order to share their opinion on it....are we losing our digital freedoms or is this what the world needs?
 
There's a lot of political stuff in the OP which should not be touched upon.

As for copyright, I don't know how your own video would infringe anyone unless you use copyrighted material, in which case, you are talking about infringing copyright.
 
STYLZ said:
So I was sitting here, contemplating life, watching a little BBC or Reuters news clip about the Fallujah situation going on right now and what I got from it was pretty profound to me. So I thought about how I would like to make a video about what I got out of it and post it on youtube.
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If you use portions of copyrighted material in 'your' clip, you may have problems with copyright. If however in 'your' clip you only refer to the BBC/Reuters clips, perhaps via a URL or an insert that has a brief quote from the original, with full attribution of title of the news cast, agency reporting, etc., which is what news papers or news broadcasts 'do all the time', you should be on 'fair use' ground, provided the quotes are 'small', and your responses address some 'critique' or expansion on the points made in the quotes.

Some number people seem to think they have to quote an entire article, or in the case of clips, insert the entire video, which does lead to copyright infringement.

On the other hand some number also seem pretty less enthused about defending 'fair use' in commenting on published works.

'Freedom of Speech' does not include copyright infringement.

'Freedom of Speech' includes being able to comment on newscasts, and give sufficient quote to allow the reader to understand the topic you are addressing.

For example, In MumbleFooBroadcast the BBC (or Reuters) reported on the situation in Falluliallland.... It is my belief... blah, blah, blah...

Is entirely 'fair use'.

On the other hand for a video clip, "Roll BBC broadcast for a full 3 minutes of the news item, with no commentary at all on your part"... is most likely a copyright infringement. Things may be different if you did do a voice over and 'contested' statement made in the broadcast...

Another example would be "I think BBC/Reuters Reportage of the situation is biased", may under fair use, allow you to show short clips illustrating your claim of 'bias'... Here The Situation is not limited to any specific 'current event'...

But as always, this is the stuff that sends lawyer's kids to upscale prepschools and Ivy League Colleges...
 
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Firstly, does it matter it was BBC and Reuters specifically, or are you talking more about the story, irregardless of who reported it? Is this information that can be found elsewhere, or is this exclusive info - or was. Now that's it's been broadcast, it's in the wind.

You could ref 'in recent reports' and skip naming names.

I have read that folks leaving less-than-glowing comments about company A or B on Yelp are getting sued. I guess I'm not clear on what it is you want to comment on in YouTube.


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STYLZ said:
So I was sitting here, contemplating life, watching a little BBC or Reuters news clip about the Fallujah situation going on right now and what I got from it was pretty profound to me. So I thought about how I would like to make a video about what I got out of it and post it on youtube. Then I thought "What if this video becomes big on youtube and the BBC or Reuters saw this and got mad and took me to court?" A lot of bad things could happen to me for copyright infringement or whatever...
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The issue is more about allowing monetization/paying you for the ads that appear in the video - than a copyright issue. Because if you can't prove it's yours/or it's deemed not to be yours - YouTube will typically keep it up and use your video to make ad/link money while cutting in the original content owner...but you would get nothing monetarily.

If you post anyway without proof of ownership then, depending on how much material with a copyright is in the video, your video may now include a link in the description to buy the original materials like on Amazon/iTunes and/or the video may be restricted from being displayed in certain countries...or if the original copyright holder doesn't want you to post it at all, it may be taken down altogether.

You won't get penalized, as in sued, with a video that has occasional 3rd party clips throughout. (Although I wonder if you could just flash a movie clip/if it's considered similar to "sampling" music - a U.S. court decision that allows to include a certain amount of seconds of music in a (rap) song without there being any issue.)

If you were a YouTube user who repeatedly uploaded entire movies or TV shows, especially recent ones, that may have a chance of that user getting sued.

I should add that, even if you actually own/created all of the content in your video (images, music) - you still have to prove it's yours. I ran across this issue when including music I created for a YT video/having to prove my own music was mine in order to make the video monetized. Without something like a record company, ASCAP or proof of license, it may not get monetized.

I wouldn't worry, unless you are lifting entire segments from TV shows or movies. Worst case scenario is usually they would take it down.
 
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Thanks you for the responses. I see a few people did get my point. Thanks for the detailed feedback. I now know I should do some research on fair use and that my fears are a little rushed if anything. It's probably bad press to go after every Tom, Dick and Harry who post a news clip with an opinion about it.....for now at least.
 
The other issue here is the "Chilling Effect". The byproduct of programs and policies that stifles speech without direct action. I'm not sure what your video would be, but the fact that you're rethinking even doing it because you're afraid of the outcome isn't such a good thing for an open society. Obviously you shouldn't be infringing on anyone's copyrights, but we also shouldn't be afraid to voice our opinions.
 
Andrius Simutis said:
The other issue here is the "Chilling Effect". The byproduct of programs and policies that stifles speech without direct action. I'm not sure what your video would be, but the fact that you're rethinking even doing it because you're afraid of the outcome isn't such a good thing for an open society. Obviously you shouldn't be infringing on anyone's copyrights, but we also shouldn't be afraid to voice our opinions.
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Yes, this is exactly it. I presented the thought process without presenting the overall idea. What is also scary is if you do something in the future that the government is offended by or doesn't like, they can come back and pull up this stuff and use it against you, kind of like they are trying to do with Assange, except of course his issue wasn't a digital one (the "rape"). They can come back and try to charge you with things if you aren't careful. Scary thoughts. Are we there yet? No, but we are closer than we think.
 
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