Re: Movie clips legal question

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Movie Buff) wrote:

>I plan to use clips from many movies and compile a dvd of my own. I
>also plan on selling that DVD commercially. What are the licensing
>issues in doing this? is it legal? What would one need to do in terms
>of legality?

The basic rule is that if a movie is covered by an unexpired copyright
(as almost any movie is if it was released after 1928), you must get
permission from the holder of the copyright, which will probably cost
you money.

There is an exception to this rule, known as "fair use," which
entitles you to use copyrighted material in certain ways without
getting permission. Very roughly, if you are creating something like a
a work of history or criticism, as opposed to entertainment, you can
use excerpts from copyrighted works to document or illustrate your
points.

Unfortunately, there is no way to establish ahead of time that a use
of this nature is a fair use. You can ask the copyright holders for
their opinions, but they will almost always say it's not fair use,
because they gain nothing from conceding that it is. You just have to
go ahead and use the material, if you think you're on sufficiently
safe ground, and hope you don't get sued.

If you do get sued, a court will decide whether you were in the right
or not. The court will consider the nature of the use you made of the
copyrighted material (the fact that you will sell your work
commercially counts against you), the amount of material you copied
and its role in your work, the nature of the works you copied (most
movies would be considered creative works, which counts against you),
and the effect of your use of copyrighted material on its value and
the market for it.

No one of these factors is determinative. For example, a court could
find that your use of copyrighted material had no effect whatever on
the market for it, or even a positive effect, and still find you
liable for infringement.,

Now, if you think this sounds hopelessly fuzzy and uncertain, you're
right, it is. If you've gotten this far and you still think you may be
entitled to use material without getting permission, you need to
consult an attorney who is familiar with intellectual property issues.
No one can give you specific advice over the Internet, even
informally, because so much depends on the specific details of your
situation. It boils down to this: your attorney must advise you
throughout your project, and actually review the completed work, to
give you an informed opinion about how safe you are.

My mail address is jsachs177 at earthlink dot net.