QUESTION
Is it considered ''Fair Use'' to use an unedited copyrighted song and animate a hilarious or otherwise ironic video alongside the dialog?
Asked on Oct 11th, 2011 on Intellectual Property - Washington
More details to this question:
Hi, Hillary again. I just wanted to make sure I wasn''t tripping any copyright wires in this case, either. As an animator, I mostly animate parody and alongside that, re-edited and re-dubbed parodies or popular songs, and I know that under the ''Fair Use'' law i''m pretty well protected for transformative criticism of the original. However I have also on some occasions used a complete (or barely edited) audio file of a copyrighted song and animated a parody or otherwise ironic video alongside the lyrics. For example, the song ''I just had Sex'' by lonely island has hilarious lyrics, and I took that song unedited and animated a hilarious video alongside those lyrics to make fun of another avenue. Then in another example I used Katy Parry''s ''E.T'' unedited to showcase an animation of many different characters of scifi media history in one giant animated mashup. Is that still considered Fair Use?
Thanks. Fair Use is a small ice-flow along a sea of lawsuits.
1 ANSWER
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A parody is often considered noninfringing under the Fair Use provision of the Copyright Act. Under the Act, the four factors considered when making a determination of fair use include: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. 17 USC 107. Most parodies are found to satisfy the fair use criteria. Irony is not necessarily parody nor is perhaps "make fun of another avenue", which sounds like satire.
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Philip Braginsky Sills Cummis and Gross
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Answered on Oct 12th, 2011 at 1:45 PM