Tag Archives: #FairUse

Bog 5: Fair use

@kylemcgee77

In modern media, there is a lot of debate on the subject of what is fair use or copyright infringement. When it comes to the YouTube vide “Star Wars Fan Film – Essence of the Force,” I feel that this media was close to being fair use but in the end was more of a copyright issue. The video’s format is obviously based off of Star Wars themes. From the intro until the end, it is just like a Star Wars film. With proper credit, this would be fine because it is essentially a tribute film, but in the end it was used for promoting a product (Mountain Dew). Videos are not in fair use if “used upon the potential market…”

I feel that the other video, “Star Wars Saga (The Best Trance Remix Montage)” was fair use. Fair use is determined by whether the material has “affect on the value of the copyrighted work” (Copyright). I feel the video is not copyright infringement because the author is using movie clips from Star Wars to make their video more appealing. It sets the mood for the remix. With proper crediting, the use of these images is in fair use. Like the previous video, I feel the clips were used for tribute and admiration. The original copyrighted audio from the movie was replaced with an original soundtrack.

There is definitely a fine line between what is and is not fair use. It is difficult to be original with media because many “new” ideas were influenced by previous work.

#dtcv

Copyright and Fair Use

@PerrinKyla

Copyright and fair use laws can be interpreted in many different ways, but it is ultimately up to the federal court to decide what is and isn’t a copyrighted production and what is a fare use production. In the first Star Wars video, “Star Wars Fan Film – Essence of the Force,” it seems like it is suppose to be a Mountain Dew commercial. I would argue that the clips from the Star Wars movies are fair use because it could be said that all the clips transform it into a parody of the Star Wars movies. However, it is said that even parodies have been sued in a federal court for infringement. There is also a question in this video of whether or not this is a real commercial or video of Mountain Dew. It says at the end of the video that the video is copyrighted but it doesn’t say what corporation copyrighted it. In the second video “Star Wars Saga (The Best Trance Remix Montage),” it is similar in the terms of being considered under fair use, but the only big difference is the music. There is a question in this video of whether or not the music is original, or if the maker of this video just took the music from somewhere else and put it to this video. In my opinion it seems that no matter what someone creates it can always be seen as plagiarized. “All ideas are secondhand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and used daily…” (Jonathan Lethem pg.68).