Re: Editing and Copyright

From: Donald Berman <berman[_at_]ccs.neu.edu>
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 19:38:18 -0500 (EST)

> On Tue, 21 Feb 1995 00rmknipe[_at_]bsuvc.bsu.edu said:
>
> >
> > I'm a little cloudy on whether or not copyrighted material can be
> > used in the form of clips in a larger work. For example say I was
> > putting together a basketball video, using clips of Shaq and company,
> > for the purpose of instruction on the game of basketball. This video
> > would be viewed by a highschool team in the school. Does this meet
> > any copyright requirements, and if not, how can this be amended?

Neal Greenfield responded:
>
> This video would likely infringe the NBA's copyright. They have a very
> strict enforcement program and may take legal action if they find out
> about the video. The only solutions I see are to either obtain their
> written consent to your compilation (unlikely) or purchase an "official"
> basketball instructional video. I have seen them in sporting goods
> stores and in catalogs. I don't know how good they are but they're
> not expensive.

This is certainly "safe" advise. But if you use short clips just for display to your students at a non-profit institution I suspect you might have a strong fair use defense under Sec. 107. If you purchase NBA videos' you might get in under Sec. 110 of this being used by a non-profit educational institution in face-to-face teaching. So the facts become important. But there is no doubt that if you were to market the video the you violate the holders' rights.

  Don Berman --  

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Received on Fri Feb 24 1995 - 00:45:29 GMT

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