Re: Excerpts on the Web

On Mon, Feb 01, 1999, Barbara Gall <bgall[_at_]sah.com> wrote:
>
> The head of a nonprofit organization wonders: I have generally
> understood that it is legal to broadcast up to 30 or 60 seconds of
> a commercial recording under some doctrine of copyright law. We
> now face the question of whether it is also legal [assuming I am
> right about using audio recordings] to use no more than 30 or 60
> seconds of a video recording. We want to put some excerpts on the
> web. Do you have a copyright expert who might have a quick answer
> to that matter? Thanks.

It's a popular misconception that there is some magical number telling you how much of a copyrighted work you can use.

The truth is, it's not as simple as that. The amount of a copyrighted work that you use is only one of four factors used to determine whether your use is fair or not; and such questions are weighed on a case by case, fact-specific basis, considering the nature of the original work, the nature of the use to which it is put, and the impact of that use on the market value of the original work.

It's easy to see that a 30 or 60 second "rule" could not possibly work. What if, for example, the original audio work were 90 seconds long? Surely using 60 or even 30 seconds of it would not automatically be a "fair" use.

Bottom line: Pay no attention when someone tells you there is a formula for how much of a copyrighted work you can use without getting into trouble.

Bob Cumbow
cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com
206-583-8566 Received on Tue Feb 02 1999 - 19:44:55 GMT