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Video Collections
November 2008 browse
Did These Mashups Use “Fair Use”? You Decide!
In AU Professor Larry Engel's Advanced Documentary Technique class, ten grad students used the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video to try to create "fair use" mashup videos. Take a look at the videos and decide how well (or not) they did!
July 2008 browse
Beyond Broadcast 2008: Watch it in its Entirety!
Couldn't make it to Beyond Broadcast 2008 but you still want to know what was discussed? We've uploaded all of the panelists' speeches, so you don't have to miss a thing!
July 2008 browse
Video Highlights from Beyond Broadcast 2008
Watch highlights of the Beyond Broadcast: Mapping Public Media panels and keynote speech, and enjoy a series of videos that really answer the questions "what is public media?" and "what does 'mapping public media' look like?" More videos from the day, featuring the presentations of a number of our panelists, are available on our Blip channel.
June 2007 browse
New Media Literacy Videos
The Center for Social Media teamed up with MIT’s New Media Literacy project to create three video exemplars with six American University School of Communication students. At the Center, the project was co-lead by SOC’s Maggie Burnette Stogner and CAS’s Celine-Marie Pascale. These exemplars are intended to help educators explore the skills needed to create new media with their students, and to be used as models to help students create their own exemplars. To find out more about MIT’s project, visit their website here.
January 2007 browse
Refrigerator Mothers
Here are examples of choices for fair use or purchasing rights in Kartemquin Films' Refrigerator Mothers.
October 2006 browse
Fair Use and Documentaries in Court
What does the legal record tell us about fair use in documentaries? Not very much, because there have been so few cases—nine since 1996, and only five plaintiffs in total, since two plaintiffs each brought three of the cases. None of the plaintiffs have been motion picture studios or large archives. In most cases, the defendant won. Where the defendant did not win, the defendant had behaved in ways that documentarians who wrote the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use would not approve.
September 2006 browse
UFVA and Center for Social Media Fair Use Contest Winners
UFVA and The CSM are pleased to announce the winners of the Fair Use Contest. The jury celebrates these films as demonstrating a successful good-faith effort to employ fair use. We were pleased that their makers evidently learned from the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement. We were delighted to note that in some cases, they have boldly and usefully extended the concept.
August 2006 browse
Making the Music You Want to Hear
This 17 minute documentary takes viewers to three different cities where communities are using media to promote workers rights, empower voters, and fill cracks in the social welfare system.
April 2006 browse
Examples of Successful Fair Use in Documentary Film
Filmmakers have been successfully employing fair use, even before the Statement of Best Practices clarified their common understandings. Here are some examples of uncontested choices for fair use. They are organized here according to the principles that filmmakers articulated in the Statement, in the categories used in the Statement. These categories are only four of the most common situations for filmmakers; some uses could be hybrid, and others might fall outside these four categories. We welcome more examples at .
November 2005 browse
Footage from the ‘Fair Use and Free Speech’ Launch
On November 18, 2005, members representing independent filmmaker professional organizations, media arts organizations, filmmakers and legal scholars gathered at American University to release the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use.
February 2005 browse
Making Your Documentary Matter 2005 part 1
The first of an annual producer's workshop was held at the Center for Social Media at American University on February 7, 2005. The workshop was designed to showcase strategies and resources on audience engagement using media. It served to highlight the dynamic and growing use of media as a tool for social outreach.
February 2005 browse
Making Your Documentary Matter 2005 part 2
Cara Mertes, P.O.V. Executive Director, discusses the power of a well-crafted human story that treats people fairly; strong support materials; and feedback in the creation of an effective documentary. She uses Tami Gold and Kelly Anderson’s Every Mother’s Son
to illustrate her points.
Ellen Schneider, Executive Director of Active Voice, uses Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini’s Farmingville to demonstrate how filmmakers can provide guidance to advocates on the power of media use.
Melissa Hook, Deputy Executive Director of the Victim Assistance Legal Organization, discusses her role as National Outreach Coordinator for Sentencing the Victim. She stresses the importance of being aware of turf issues among partner organizations; as well as recognizing opposition.
Video Shorts
May 18 watch · download
Remix Culture: Fair Use is Your Friend (7:34)
A video that explains why the Code for Fair Use in Online Video got created, and how the Code can help you create online videos that employ fair use of copyrighted material.
November 10 watch · download
Fair Use for Media Literacy Education
The Center for Social Media is proud to announce the release of the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. This code is a step-by-step guide to fair use in an academic setting that enables teachers and students who use popular culture to know when their uses are legal.
To get a sense of what the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy is all about, watch our Media Literacy video.
April 5 watch · download
Remix Culture (3:51)
When is it fair and legal to use other people's copyrighted work to make your own? What's the line between infringement and fair use? Take this tour of remix culture classics, and use the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video to make your own decisions. Please share your thoughts with us on our blog. To download a quicktime version of this video right click here.
August 14 watch · download
Beyond Broadcast: Reinventing Public Media in a Participatory Culture (13:00)
Billed by bloggers as ‘geeks meet wonks,’ Beyond Broadcast was a public conference to explore how traditional public media face a critical and unique opportunity to embrace participatory, web-based media models, such as podcasting, video blogs and social software.