Five Ways to Minimize Risk of Copyright Liability from Citizen Media
We've said this before: prevention beats every dispute resolution mechanism available so long as you do not limit your own freedom out of fear of liability.
That said, here are the top five tips for using copyrighted material fearlessly from the extraordinarily concise and helpful "Primer on Copyright Liability and Fair Use" from the Citizen Media Law Project Blog.
While there is no definitive test for determining whether your use of another's copyrighted work is a fair use, there are several things you can do to minimize your risk of copyright liability:
- Use only as much of the copyrighted work as is necessary to accomplish your purpose or convey your message;
- Use the work in such a way that it is clear that your purpose is commentary, news reporting, or criticism;
- Add something new or beneficial (don't just copy it -- improve it!);
- If your source is nonfiction, limit your copying to the facts and data; and
- Seek out Creative Commons or other freely licensed works when such substitutions can be made and respect the attribution requests in those works.
I was visiting a website that showed up in server logs.
It was a typical RSS scraper site, complete with adsense.
But to take the cake - it had copyscape protection!
I have several concerns with the listing of ways to avoid copyright infringement.
1. "Use only as much of the copyrighted work as is necessary to accomplish your purpose or convey your message" ---- Clients come to me and want to know how much of the song can I use or can I reprint a portion of this chapter of the book, or can I use this poster in something else. I advise the client to get a license. Fair Use is a defense which is very difficult to win. There is no cut-and-dry rule that you can use three bars from the song before liability attaches.
2. Add something new or beneficial (don't just copy it -- improve it!) --- This trips folks up all the time. Adding something new does not protect you from copyright infringement. You need a license to create a derivative work. Adding something new to someone else’s copyright is a violation of the copyright owner's exclusive right to allow for the creation of derivative works.
Remember, if you did not create it, you probably need a license to use it.