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Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video

This document is a code of best practices that helps creators, online providers, copyright holders, and others interested in the making of online video interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances.

This is a guide to current acceptable practices, drawing on the actual activities of creators, as discussed among other places in the study Recut, Reframe, Recycle: Quoting Copyrighted Material in User-Generated Video and backed by the judgment of a national panel of experts. It also draws, by way of analogy, upon the professional judgment and experience of documentary filmmakers, whose own code of best practices has been recognized throughout the film and television businesses.

Beyond Broadcast 2008 Rapporteur’s Report

The 3rd annual Beyond Broadcast Conference, titled “Mapping Public Media,” was held June 17th, 2008 at American University. Roundtable discussions, demos and exhibits examined the explosion of digital, participatory maps as public media, and as tools for visualizing the radical shifts in our media terrain. This rapporteur’s report offers highlights of the day’s events, and includes audio and video of speakers and multimedia presentations.

Beyond Broadcast 2008 Videos, Podcasts and Downloads

Downloads of the Beyond Broadcast podcasts, videos and other materials, for those who just can’t get enough of the 2008 Beyond Broadcast conference!

Frequently Asked Questions: Public Media

In this moment of shifting technologies and emerging platforms, how can we identify public media? Here at the Center for Social Media, we define them as any media expressions or platforms that promote public knowledge and action—that is, the formation of publics that can act together to address common problems.

Making Your Media Matter 2008 Rapporteur’s Report

Making Your Media Matter ‘08 Podcast and Discussion Forum

Audio podcasts and takeaways from the 2008 Making Your Media Matter conference are now available!

We welcome your comments and thoughts about the conference in our discussion forum at the bottom of the page.

Recut, Reframe, Recycle

Online videos frequently quote copyrighted material without permission, in ways that could be entirely legal through fair use. But these works are threatened by anti-piracy measures that do not distinguish adequately between legal and illegal uses.

Mapping Public Media: Inside and Out

This analysis by Center for Social Media Research Director Jessica Clark contrasts the findings revealed by CSM case studies to Govcom.org’s maps of the same media projects, below.

Fair Use Frequently Asked Questions

Since the release of The Statement of Best Practices we have received many inquires about fair use. Here are some of our more commonly asked items.

The View from the Top: P.O.V. Leaders on the Struggle to Create Truly Public Media

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the groundbreaking PBS documentary series P.O.V., the Center for Social Media interviewed several of those who have led the project through its last two decades on the goals, challenges, and the vision for one of television’s most productive sites for imagining and innovating the future of public media.

Fair Use Language for Course Syllabi[PDF]

In your syllabus, you often have some information on copyright. Here is some language to include in that section, specifically on fair use. This language has been reviewed by lawyers, including law professor Peter Jaszi of American University’s Washington College of Law and Michael Donaldson of Donaldson and Hart law firm, and it has been approved by the University Film and Video Association for use by its members.

Copyright Backgrounder[PDF]

By Michael Donaldson, Esq.
This concise background document describes what copyright is and what can be copyrighted, as well as what material is in the public domain and what is fair useable. Michael Donaldson is an attorney in Los Angeles, many of whose clients are leading documentary filmmakers. His book, Clearance and Copyright (Silman-James Press, October 2003), from which much of this information has been drawn, is widely regarded as a basic text for documentary filmmakers. Donaldson also contributed his expertise to the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use.

Fair Use Scenarios[PDF]

Here are four scenarios, or hypothetical situations, that a documentary filmmaker might find him or herself facing. The four scenarios are each linked to one of the Statement’s categories. These can be used for classroom discussion, and to inspire you to write other scenarios.

Fair Use Clip Discussion

Over the course of three days, we are hosting a discussion on whether the clips posted below could be considered fair use of somebody else’s copyrighted material based on the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video.

A Peek Under the Hood of the NPR API

by John Tynan
How are online developers taking advantage of the recent release of NPR’s application programming interface (API)? John Tynan, the webmaster of KJZZ in Phoenix, writes about his own efforts to develop a widget that allows users to create tailored timelines of NPR stories and place them on their own web sites. In the process, he describes not only new tools for public media makers, but a rising ethos of transparency and collaboration in public broadcasting.

Beyond Broadcast 2008: Watch it in its Entirety!

Field Report: “Why Democracy?”

Greg Fitzpatrick

This is the third in a series of “field reports” that the Center for Social Media is producing as part of the Future of Public Media project, funded by the Ford Foundation. The field reports examine innovative media projects for public knowledge and action, with a particular interest in exploring how publics form around such projects.

Center for Social Media Research Fellow Greg Fitzpatrick’s examination of “Why Democracy”—an ambitious multi-platform, multi-country public broadcasting project—demonstrates the opportunities and challenges for public media born in a broadcasting environment to engage publics across global and digital divides.

Both social media tools and online broadcast platforms have lowered the barriers for collaborative media experiments, facilitating the rapid creation of networks of producers, distributors and publics. Like any tool, however, they must be wielded with skill and foresight to function well. While the “Why Democracy” project succeeded in its primary goal of coordinating a series of international broadcast events, it achieved more modest results in using the digital social networking space to host a critical discussion about public issues. In the pseudo-public sphere of public broadcasting, it achieved recognition for powerful and evocative programming, but in the emerging DIY public sphere of participatory digital media—social networking with content—it registered a much smaller effect.

Intended to be a “prototype for international multimedia events,” this experiment in global production and outreach offers valuable lessons for filmmakers, broadcasters, and civil society organizations aiming to inform and mobilize publics through media. Limited resources, lack of social media expertise, unclear objectives, and the difficulties of cross-cultural coordinating all hampered the capabilities of “Why Democracy” organizers to foster sustained public engagement during the initial broadcast push. However, post-broadcast efforts continue.

Beyond Broadcast ‘08 Keynote: Larry Irving[PDF]

Larry Irving, President, Irving Information Group
Widely credited with coining the term “the digital divide,” telecommunications consultant Larry Irving formerly served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information under the Clinton administration. In his remarks at the June 17, 2008 Beyond Broadcast conference, he urged public broadcasters and their allies to craft a clear policy agenda for the next administration that reflects both technological and demographic shifts. He suggested that “new media” has now become simply “media,” and that public media makers will need to adjust quickly while maintaining a commitment to serving a diverse array of Americans through high-quality noncommercial productions. Read more in the transcript of his remarks.

Mapping the Money in Public Media[PDF]

Diane Mermigas, Editor at Large, MediaPost
Public media’s opportunities exceed its challenges. Digital interactivity is tailor-made for public media projects that incorporate grassroots creativity, deep-dive examinations of complex issues, and connections to civic activism. Participatory tools and platforms give public media makers the means to secure their own financial futures, and to compete with large commercial outlets. This briefing, commissioned in conjunction with the Beyond Broadcast conference, examines models for monetizing digital, interactive public meda.

Field Report: OneWorld’s Virtual Bali

Kate Schuler, Research Fellow, Center for Social Media
This is the second in a series of “field reports” that the Center for Social Media is producing as part of the Future of Public Media project, funded by the Ford Foundation. The field reports examine innovative media projects for public knowledge and action, with a particular interest in exploring how publics form around such projects.

Coming Soon!

The Rise and Fall of the Public Service Publisher[PDF]

Des Freedman, Department of Media and Communications and Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy, Goldsmiths, University of London
This briefing examines the rise and fall of a proposal for a Public Service Publisher (PSP) in the U.K.— a new organization that would have commissioned independent public media content across a range of participatory digital platforms. This central policy debate in one of the largest and most influential public broadcasting systems in the world provides useful parallels for U.S. policy and public media makers. They too face the rise of Web 2.0 models, questions about how copyright restrictions should apply to public content, the shift to digital broadcasting, and the widespread commercialization of the media sector.

Beyond Broadcast Information

For more information, visit the Beyond Broadcast site at BeyondBroadcast.net.

To register, click here.

• Documentary Filmmakers’ Best Practices in Fair Use
  Resources for mediamakers on fair use
• The Copyright Management Center
  The Copyright Management Center at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis provides resources for the management of copyright issues relating to teaching, research, and service, including a checklist to use in determining Fair Use.
• The Center for the Study of the Public Domain
  The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University held a moving image contest on the ways that intellectual property affects art. Watch the videos here: http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/contest/winners/index.html
• The Fair Use Visualizer
  The “Fair Use Visualizer” from The Copyright Website is another tool educators can use in determining Fair Use.
• Wendy Seltzer
  This podcast features Wendy Seltzer, professor of Internet Law and Privacy at Brooklyn Law School.
• Cable in the Classroom
  Cable in the Classroom’s copyright guidelines are available here.
• Untold Stories Interview Transcript
  Click here for a transcription of the interviews with filmmakers.
• “Docu makers rallying for fair use of fair use”
  Written by Gregg Kilday, published in the Hollywood Reporter.
• “Copyright isn’t the Last Word”
  An emerging “fair use” doctrine lets makers of documentary films use some material without obtaining a license. Written by Elaine Dutka, published in the LA Times.
• “Doc-makers Get Specific About Copyright Fair Use”
  Written by Steve Behrens, Published in Current Magazine