“Fair Use”

With the arrival of Podcasts on the media scene, Podcasting individuals have run into material copyright regulations. There are four rules that a user of copyrighted material must consider in order minimize the risk of copyright litigation. These rules are called “Fair Use” rules or guidelines:

1.  
   1. The nature of the use.
   2. How it is used.
   3. Amount of use.
   4. The effect the use on the market.

The nature of the use includes the act of transforming the original work. Transforming the work into something new is considered acceptable. (A new art form or technique using the original media as it’s foundation.). How it is used refers to extracting data from the original work and using it in your work with a reference to the original. (Using factual information from the original work.) The amount of use is a hard issue to clarify. If you use the heart of the work (published or non-published) it is not considered “Fair Use”.

If your “Fair Use” Material changes the market for the original work, this is taboo. A new art form that enhances the original works market value or does not decrease it’s value is OK. All four rules are inter-related. The nature of use (Transformed) is the most important. The remaining three add nuances to the “Fair Use”.

 

I want to put my media out there for the public to enjoy. I am concerned about how the media will be used, who owns it, who will use it and who will benefit financially from it. I want to copyright it! If I use copyright agents, they control what happens to my work. Creative Commons (CC) has developed a licensing mechanism that allows me to choose how my work will be used. I can choose several licensing options (non-commercial, for money, for notoriety…). CC has developed all the tools, payment options and legalizes for me to copyright my media and issue licenses. They have made it easy for me to control and protect my work. I can make my work available to anyone. Each individual can have a separate type of license that best fits his/her use. I get what I what for the use and CC gets what they want. A restriction is that transformations of my licensed original work must go back to the CC “library”. A win-win!!

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