Welcome to I Am Your Target Demographic and today we’re discussing something vitally
important to my channel, and tons of other YouTube channels, and that’s the idea of
“fair use” and what that means in relation to copyrighted works.
I used to be a part of a Multi-Channel Network called Fullscreen, which would offer me resources
to be successful in exchange for a small cut of my revenue.
However, last week I received an email giving me less than 24 hours notice that I was going
to be removed from their program and now I’m back on my own.
Why would they remove me?
I have some very successful videos and a not too shabby subscriber count.
When I asked, it was because of copyrighted material.
Now, I checked my YouTube account and I have zero copyright strikes and zero strikes against
community guidelines.
I do have what are called claimed videos, where someone else has claimed that I used
their copyrighted material and they’re making the revenue from said videos, or maybe the
video is not available in some countries.
I checked one of these notices and the message says that one, I’m not in trouble and two,
my account standing is not affected by this.
So no strikes, nothing detrimental to the standing of my account.
I was let go from Fullscreen because of the potential of an incident, a history of using
copyrighted material that may someday result in a lawsuit.
I’m high risk.
Now I get this concern, so I’m not really upset at Fullscreen (aside from the super short notice).
So today I want to discuss fair use and what creators like me can do to protect themselves
in situations like this, and why I think I’ve done nothing wrong.
The biggest disclaimer that I, and every resource I found about fair use, can emphasize is that
there’s no clear cut answer.
Each case is reviewed by a judge and decided independently, so there’s not a checklist
of what is and isn’t fair use, though that would be super convenient but near impossible.
For the following tips and guidelines, I’m going off of resources from the U.S. Copyright Office.
The first umbrella is what type of content might qualify for fair use.
Criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research are all examples
of what might qualify.
Reviewing a television show and using content from the show is something that might qualify.
Using clips from a movie to educate or in an educational context might qualify.
You are transforming the original content.
Posting a clip from a movie, unedited and untransformed, and then expecting to make
money from that via YouTube is clearly not fair use.
Notice that entertainment is missing from that list, so even things like compilation
videos or fake music videos using clips from your favorite anime, those do not necessarily qualify for fair use.
Most of my content, I would classify in the above list as teaching or commentary.
I’ve got over 70 videos right now that focus on popular television shows, movies, video
games, or other pop culture fixtures.
I explain it, break it down, tell you why you might like this hobby or franchise or fandom.
I’m not just posting clips from Lord of the Rings, but I’m explaining the history,
the fascination, pitching this magical world to people that don’t know what it’s all about.
So the US Copyright Office has four pillars that it recommends that judges look at, when
deciding if something is fair use or not fair use.
The first pillar is the purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of
a commercial nature or a nonprofit slash educational purpose.
Your content has a much better chance of being considered fair use if it’s not monetized.
Nonprofit and educational reasons are not always allowed though, this isn’t a clear cut thing.
The purpose of the character can be transformed by making something new.
So by shaking up the content you’re using significantly and not trying to make money
from it, would both be good ideas for a better chance at fair use.
The second pillar is the nature of the copyrighted work.
Creative and fictional work is much more likely to be protected, so things like movies, television, song...
Factual work or content of a real life incident, is much more likely to be considered fair use.
If you’re using something unpublished or private, you also have a much lower chance
of fair use, since the creator themselves didn’t get a chance to share it.
The next pillar is about the amount and importance of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted
work as a whole.
If you post the entirety of something, a song or a television episode for example, your
chance at fair use is really slim, though has sometimes been granted.
On the other side, using a very small amount has a better chance of fair use, though there
have been cases where the quote unquote heart of the work was shared and therefore the entire
project was deemed not fair use.
This huge range makes prediction of your content really unsure, since it can vary so drastically.
The last pillar is the effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
If I post an entire episode of a television show, I’m hurting the market for that show.
People will no longer pay for that episode or that season if I make it readily available for free.
If I post a review of a movie and I’m using footage of that movie but I give it a bad review.
I’m hurting their brand.
Why would they allow me to use their footage, just to convince people to not see it?
A positive effect on the brand is more likely to cause fair use.
So again, there is no formula but these are the four big things that should be considered
by the judge looking at the case.
They may make decisions contradictory to other cases, it’s all up to them.
That makes it difficult to be a content creator that is creating content reliant on other
properties, like I do.
So what can we do?
Hope.
Be positive about the work and content you’re discussing.
Point people to the source, encourage viewers to watch the show or get into the fandom you’re talking about.
If you don’t need to monetize, don’t.
Sometimes it’s worth demonetizing and maybe that video builds your own brand and gets
you some new attention, even moreso than whatever ad revenue you might’ve made.
Lastly, make sure you’re transforming the content.
Make it your own thing, not just cutting and posting content that you didn’t have a hand in creating.
So thanks for watching our video on fair use and hopefully you learned something, hopefully
you realized how complicated of an issue this is, there is no clear cut answer.
There is no 'this is how you're safe.'
You know, there is nothing, it's just hoping and do the best you can and try to create
original content that is respectful of the original creator.
It's tricky.
So hopefully you learned something and make sure you subscribe to check out other videos
I've made and thanks for watching!