By now you have read the previous articles from our Copyright Weekend and are familiar with the terms, legal grey areas, and art-specific topics, such as reference photos and fan art. But if you want to make a film or video, where do you go to obtain music, sound effects, or other audio necessities in order to make your video meet your vision? How would you get stock footage or 3D models for an animated film without doing all the work yourself?

There are many options!


First, you can reach out to the creator or copyright owner. This is easily accomplished by finding the contact information (usually email, not social media accounts). Sometimes, if you know the creator/copyright owner personally, just reaching out and asking if you can use their work in your video is enough. However, legally, you may want to get it in writing. For me, if I’m going to ask my musician friends about using their music, I initiate the conversation online or in-person and then follow up in an email, just so I have that paper trail. While they will probably never ask me to remove my work from the internet, some websites (like Youtube) have a system in place that does not know how to check copyright claims for every situation. So if the time ever comes that you need to prove that there was a conversation and you have permission, have the emails saved and ready to upload. You can also have a contract written up, if necessary.

What if you don’t have access to a copyright owner or the creator? Without permission, you do not have access to Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy.” Sorry. You legally cannot use it in your video (unless you fall into one of the strange legal grey areas). However, you can obtain rights to someone else’s work that sounds similar or you can find something that is entirely different that you find actually works better. You can pay a one-time fee for music, sound clips, stock footage, 3D models, and so many more things that will enhance your project. You can also find some of these things for FREE!

Finding work under the Creative Commons licenses is my favorite way of adding music and other things to a quick video, aside from hiring someone to create the work I want. Many websites have a search filter available to help you find work available under Creative Commons. Even Google Images. There are also quite a few musicians who make work for online creators to use, such as Kevin MacLeod. Most of these stock websites and creators can be found just through your favorite search engine.

Even DeviantArt has a section for work under Creative Commons. On the Green Site, you can find these under Stock and Resources. However, make sure you check the licensing for the specific piece you want, so you do not misuse it. On Eclipse, you can find these under Resources on the content tab.

Do you have questions about DeviantArt’s specific copyright policy? The About Copyright Policy page can help you!

Remember, when in doubt, just ask. Simple communication can prevent so many problems.

Welcome to our Copyright Weekend! This weekend, we will be helping you understand various copyright laws with common art forms. To get started, we are giving you a glossary of common terms relevant to making art for the internet.

First, a disclaimer.

I am not a lawyer and I cannot give you legal advice. The following information is what I know from media and art business classes in addition to my own research into public knowledge.

Of course, copyright laws are specific to countries and when work is on the internet, it gets confusing. This article, in particular, will reflect a lot of what is common in the US government because that is what I am most familiar with. If you have information pertaining to your own country that is different, please share it in the comments (with a legitimate resource linked) so others may learn.

Each of these topics could be individual articles themselves, but let’s open this can of worms.

Copyright

First of all, what is copyright?

“Copyright is a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Copyright covers both published and unpublished works.” – US Government via copyright.gov

Once you create a work in a tangible form, you own the rights to it. Just stating aloud to your friend that great idea for a movie you had does not mean that if they make that movie you talked about you have any rights to it. Write it down and the answer could be different. Note: could be. Everything is not always black and white and it often gets incredibly detailed. Check with a lawyer if you have specific questions.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that created different licenses to help creators determine which type of protection works best for them and their work. Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright but instead work alongside it. The six Creative Commons licenses are Attribution, Attribution Share-Alike, Attribution No Derivatives, Attribution Non-Commercial, Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike, Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives.

LegalZoom offers a comprehensive FAQ about the individual licenses.
 

Fair Use

Fair Use gets thrown around a lot online, but it can be confusing as the line gets a bit blurry. Fair use can be “any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and ‘transformative’ purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody.” (Stanford)

Educational work can be considered fair use; however, it depends on the type of education. Stating that the project is for educating online members does not mean that it is fair use. Generally, “educational” refers to an institutional setting and non-profit. Copyright.gov has a lot more details on the specifics of Fair Use in a variety of settings such as more information on what is educational and not.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is often misunderstood as the copying of someone’s original ideas; however, it is fraud. Plagiarism is typically in reference to when someone steals work and tries to pass it off as their own or when the original is not credited.

Unfortunately, merely crediting a work does not mean that you will be able to pass it off as legal. More often than not, you will need to be granted permission from the copyright holder to use a work, whether it is audio or visual. More information on plagiarism can be found at plagiarism.org. 

Public Domain

Somehow in the years since the internet has become accessible, the idea that if a work is online, it is in the public domain. No. Get that idea out of your head. Right. Now.

The four most common ways for a work to enter the public domain are:
• the copyright has expired
• the copyright owner failed to follow copyright renewal rules
• the copyright owner deliberately places it in the public domain, known as “dedication,” or
• copyright law does not protect this type of work.
When it gets to collections, even films in the public domain, this also gets a bit blurry because the book of short stories may be protected or the WB print of the film may be protected, but a story within the book or the original film print may not. Another example is that I made a short film out of clips from films that were in the public domain. While anyone could use the individual clips, the work that I created out of the pieces is owned by me. Even if it is on Youtube.

Stanford offers even more information on public domain. 

Royalty-Free

Royalty-free means that the buyer pays a one-time fee to use an image or a piece of music. Shutterstock, a stock image site, defines it in more detail. www.shutterstock.com/blog/ask-…
This is by no means comprehensive, but these are some of the many terms you should be familiar with if you are a content creator or artist. As a general rule, ask for permission and cite your sources. If your work has you questioning if you could get in legal trouble, connect with a lawyer.

Hello! We are planning to do a Project Educate Weekend on copyright! We know there is a lot of misinformation out there about what is legal and illegal to use, especially online and in the art world when it comes to references and collaboration. The plan here is to help clear up some of the grey areas!

If you are interested in contributing an article, please note me, Cinestress!

Topics we are looking for:

• Explanation of legal terms regarding copyright and intellectual property (ex: fair use, public domain, creative commons, etc.)
• Interview with an entertainment or art lawyer
• Legalities of Fan Art
• Any other ideas you may have!