COPYRIGHT & FAIR USE:

BEST PRACTICES

Pat Aufderheide Center for Social Media American University

THE PURPOSE OF

COPYRIGHT

ONE PURPOSE:

TO PROMOTE THE CREATION OF CULTURE

By:

•Rewarding creators with limited monopoly

• Encouraging new makers to use existing culture

WHY BALANCE?

• All culture createdAll culture createdon existing culture on existing culture (we used to know that)(we used to know that)

• The First Amendment The First Amendment (no censorship)(no censorship)

“Standing on the shoulders of

giants.”

HOW WE FORGOT BALANCE:• Copyright term

extension

• Default copyright

• Punishing penalties (statutory damages)

• Large content holders’ aggressive tactics

The Escape Hatch!FAIR USE:

FAIRFAIR USEUSE •Legal, unauthorized use of Legal, unauthorized use of copyrighted material—under some copyrighted material—under some circumstancescircumstances

•FlexibleFlexible

•BroadBroad

•AdaptableAdaptable

INDIVIDUALS FEAR…

• Will I get it wrong?

• Will I get sued? $125K+ per infringement!!)

• Will my boss/librarian/client get angry?

BEST PRACTICES

EDUCATION• Knowledge of the law

• Awareness of problem

• Define interpretation of fair use

COMMUNITIES DEFINE FAIR USE FOR THEMSELVES

• Documentary filmmakers

• Film scholars

• Media literacy teachers

• More

STORIES UNTOLD STORIES UNTOLD

Creative Creative consequences consequences of the rights of the rights clearance clearance culture for culture for documentary documentary filmmakersfilmmakers

DOCUMENTARYFILMMAKERS

RESULTS• Broadcasters program films

• Cablecasters program films

• Filmmakers develop new kinds of projects

• Television/web companies expand their plans

• All insurers of errors and omissions insurance now accept fair use claims

ENGLISH TEACHERS

MEDIA LITERACY CATEGORIES

• Classroom teaching

• Producing texts

• Publishing texts online/print

• Student projects

• Students posting/publishing their work

RESULTS• Teachers share syllabi, curriculum

• Work is published using the code

• School districts adopt code

• Code used for national student contests

• Other teachers want to know how they can employ fair use

ONLINE VIDEO

ONLINE VIDEO CODE• Comment/critique

• Illustration/example

• Accidentally/incidentally

• Preserve/recall

• Discuss

• Collage (Remix)

RESULTS

• Google funds video on the Code

• Plethora of YouTube “citations”

• Continuing stream of users to website

• Use in K-12, film schools, contests

OTHER COMMUNITIES AND CODES

• OpenCourseWare

• Archivists

• Film/media scholars

COMING SOON!

•Librarians

•Poets

•Communications scholars

CHALLENGES TO COME

• Extending the model (music, literature)

• Publicizing the model

• DMCA issues

• International congruence

CORE CONCEPT

People can act together to make fair use more useable

Or…..

PRACTICE MAKES

PRACTICE

Please feel free to share this presentation in its entirety. For excerpting, kindly employ the principles of fair use.

CONTACT INFO

Pat Aufderheide Center for Social MediaSchool of Communication American University Washington, DC paufder@american.edu202-885-2069