I am working on a project for film school. There is a sequence where a tv needs to be turned on. I (and the rest of the crew) was wondering what the laws are regarding showing programming on the television that is then recorded on film.
Things we would like to show:
Commercials
Newscasts
Television shows
Is this at all possible? Keep in mind that we would only show around 2 seconds of each item (we will be able to hear the audio in the commercial/tv show) then switch to a new channel. Time is a time constraint so going to networks isn’t really an issue. Our backup plan is to make our own commercials and use them.
From a practical point of view, don’t worry about it. No one is going to police the issue.
As for the legalities, they are complex. However, you are allowed to tape TV shows for your own personal use. In addition, you may be able to argue a fair use defense (due to the short length of the clips, and the fact that this is an educational project) if there were a suit.
That’s a horse of a different color. Whether you’re selling a copy or not is irrelevant to general copyright issues, but it does apply with fair use. Since you would have to argue fair use in any defense, it weakens your case (though not necessarily fatally). In addition, by selling the result, you raise your visibility, making more likely you’ll be sued.
You shouldn’t have a problem with a classroom assignment, but you should ask permission before marketing it. Since the time frame for that is more open ended, you could probably get some of the permissions before you go.
Thanks a lot, I’ve just started contacting some Lawyers from TV Networks in hopes of getting their okay in using stuff from News Broadcasts and shows they have the rights to. I appreciate this a lot.
Do not even think about selling the tape until you either consult a copyright lawyer or write to the network for permission. (Doing the latter is a whole lot cheaper but can be time consuming.)
The lawyer at the network I got ahold of was very helpful. He said that getting the network’s permission for our particular project would be very hard because the project we are doing is basically telling people not to watch so much tv - which would be a pretty hard sell to the network.
It’s understandable. What network will be happy if they watch something telling people not to watch tv and the example of the tv not to watch comes from their network.
He did a good job of explaining how copyright laws work but from what he said to me, it’s sort of a grey area when it comes to reproducing only a small part of the whole. He said because we are using only a very small portion of the whole it might be okay because the copyright only applies to a substantial reproduction. It could turn into a hassle I don’t need though. I have yet to talk to the other producer and the director but I’m going to push for our back up plan which is making the commercials and small clips of tv ourselves.
When I watch the credits for movies, they always seem to mention all of the video clips that were playing on any television sets that were in the background of the shots. I believe they have to get permission from the copyright holder to use those video clips.
You can tape your own commercials and programming. Then you’d hold the copyrights to them.
A few seconds of someone at a desk reading news items
A few seconds of a couple sitting in wing back chairs bickering
A few seconds of someone in the garage with a broom saying, “Has this ever happened to you?”
If you are using clips from television in order to make the point that watching television is bad, then you are engaging in critical commentary, which is a very good fair use defense. You should make sure, however, that you are using only as much of a program as is necessary to make a point – that is, in the range of a few seconds. Again, if you’re doing a school project, then that’s an educational purpose and it gives you an even stronger fair use defense. If you are seriously interested in selling copies, you really need to hire your own copyright lawyer to give you advice on how much of a clip you should use.
Will the images and sound be in the background, so that someone might not even be able to make them out, or will they be full screen and full sound? Will the product or program they’re actually promoting be easily apparent?
Might make a difference about what is “fair use.”
At this point I think it might be a lot more hassle-free to make your own.
On many other copyright threads the point has often been hammed home that it doesn’t matter in the least whether or not you intend to make money, a copyright violation is still a copyright violation.
So it might look like a contradiction that people are saying, correctly, in this thread that it does make a difference.
The fair use section of the Copyright Act was drafted so as to specifically give great leeway to the use of copyrighted materials in educational projects so that students would not have to spend time or money or leap procedural barriers for class projects.
This fair use protection vanishes as soon as an educational project turns into a commercial project.
None of the rest of the points people are making here (visibility, length of clip, etc.) are applicable to a commercial endeavor. They are simply wrong.
Rather than going to the networks, you might try local stations that produce their own programs. That at least has the advantage of giving you somebody to talk to face-to-face who can put their hands on clips right now, and they may be more supportive if they know your school. Given the subject they probably wouldn’t go for it, but you could even offer them a royalty-free first run when you do go commercial.