Fair Use
What is fair use?
Fair use recognizes that while the primary purpose of copyright laws is to encourage artistic and cultural innovation, rigid application of copyrights would actually stifle that creativity. Society benefits when creators have the freedom to critique and comment on the works of their peers, or to remix and reuse artistic material in new and inventive ways.
Read on to learn more about how fair use is determined, and how it may apply to the work you upload to Vimeo.
Does fair use give me free reign to reuse any material I want without getting permission?
What is considered “fair use” depends on the circumstances. To over-simplify for a moment, fair use protects creators who reuse copyrighted content in a few ways: when the new work directly critiques and comments on existing works; for educational or scholarly purposes; to transform the source material into something new. Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that, so please read on before deciding whether you can claim fair use.
Who decides what does and does not count as fair use?
How is fair use determined? What are the “four factors”?
The copyright statute gives us four factors to apply on a case-by-case basis:
- The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
- The nature of the copyrighted work.
- The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
- The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Courts use these factors to decide whether a particular use qualifies, but remember that they can only do so after you have been sued for copyright infringement. The burden of establishing the fair use exception always falls on the person asserting it; the copyright holder does not have to prove the lack of fair use.
What do the four fair use factors mean?
The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
How are you using the copyrighted work?
If your use can be considered “transformative,” this factor will weigh in your favor.
In other words, does your video alter the original work to give it a new meaning or shed new light on it? Uses that directly appraise or comment on the original work are more likely to be transformative because they add a new meaning or message. On the other hand, are you using the material because you needed to put something in a particular scene and the copyrighted work happens to fit? Such uses will probably point away from fair use.
Your use doesn’t necessarily have to be “transformative” to qualify for fair use (although it definitely helps). Any use that furthers the public interest could potentially tip this factor in your direction. Parody, criticism, news reporting, scholarship, and commentary are all areas where courts have traditionally recognized fair use.
This factor also takes into account whether your use is “commercial” or “noncommercial.” Videos that seek to make money or promote a product or brand are harder to justify under this factor. While videos that are purely personal or for educational uses are weighted a bit more toward fair use, non-profit intent does not automatically qualify you for fair use.The nature of the copyrighted work.
What type of copyrighted work are you using?
This factor focuses on the content that is being re-used. It weighs against fair use if the original work is highly creative (like a song, movie, or TV show), and will weigh toward fair use if the original work is less creative (like a phone directory, scientific data, or quotes from a historical record).The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
How much of the copyrighted work are you using? Is the portion you are using the “heart” of the original work?
Generally speaking, using a great deal of the copyrighted work weighs against fair use. Less extensive use generally weighs in favor of fair use. What is considered extensive depends on the total size of the copyrighted work at issue. There are no clear percentages or calculations that decide how much is too much or where fair use ends and copyright infringement begins. In addition, even relatively small uses can point against fair use if that small use is the “heart” of the work, such as a famous riff in a song or the climactic ending of a film.The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Can your use of the copyrighted work stand as a potential substitute for the original?
Uses that might negatively affect the market for the original work strongly weigh against fair use. Uses that have little to no effect will generally weigh in favor of fair use.
If people could watch your video instead of the original work, this factor is less likely to favor you. The point of fair use is to encourage the creation of more and better works of art, not to enable you to profit from works of others.
Important: Remember that there’s no formula for adding up the fair use factors. Different courts will interpret the factors in different ways. Claiming fair use always carries a certain amount of legal risk, but awareness of the factors above will help you decide whether you’re taking an acceptable risk.
How does Fair Use apply to parody?
Because a successful parody needs to mimic the original, you can generally borrow more than with other types of uses. One important caveat: You can borrow only as much as you need to fully express the parody or clue in the audience to the joke. Parodies that borrow too liberally from the original may be legally problematic. (Plus, they're less successful as parodies. Proceed with care!)
Whether a work is considered a valid parody under fair use also depends on the extent to which the new work adds elements that comment upon or criticize the original work. Works that use other works for the purposes of getting noticed don’t qualify. In the Supreme Court’s words, “uses to get attention or to avoid the drudgery in working up something fresh” will have a more difficult claim to fair use.
How do Vimeo moderators decide if a video qualifies as fair use?
Our moderators remove videos that constitute obvious cases of infringement when they are brought to our attention. Examples include rips of movies, television shows, and music videos, or a complete song playing in a video with a blank background or minimal visuals. These aren’t the only examples of things that we remove as infringing, so please don’t take the list as exhaustive.
We also respond to appeals under our Copyright Match system. If Copyright Match flags your video but you believe it qualifies as a fair use, you can appeal the match and let our moderators know why you think fair use applies. For best results, you should include as much information as possible about why the four factors of fair use weigh in your favor and exactly how they apply to your video.
Please note that any determination we make will not impact any claim a copyright holder may have against you. Our allowing a video to appear on Vimeo doesn’t mean you can’t be sued.
How much of a copyrighted work can I use under fair use?
Does fair use apply to the background music in my video?
What if I say my use is a fair use in the video description?
What if I give credit to the original artists?
Can Vimeo tell me if my video counts as fair use?
That means you should think through the four factors of fair use and see if you can apply them to your videos.
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