Lost Video Island

[EMMALOUISE]

Are making fan vids against the law ?

I mean can you get in to trouble for doing it, with the police i know this proberbly sounds a bit silly that i've been vidding for this long and not thought about it.

Are the laws different in different countries.
Any help would be appreciated.

[Aislynn]

It's definitely not a silly question at all!

Technically, vidding falls into copyright violation, both for the video source (whatever show or movie you're vidding) and the music as well. Some companies turn a blind eye to it because even though a vidder doesn't have written permission to use their copyrighted material, they recognize it as being used as free promotion for their show/artist. Other companies such as Warner Music Group (WMG) require Youtube to disable or mute any vids that use music by any of their artists. Fox (who owns Prison Break) is also known for not allowing many of their shows to be vidded and will have Youtube disable/delete them when caught.

Youtube also seems to have some policy perhaps about how many vids you've had disabled, or whose copyright you violated or some such that will get your Youtube account deleted without warning. I've never heard an official "this is when we delete you" explanation from them.

For worse ramifications than just getting your vids muted/disabled/deleted or losing your Youtube account, I have heard of vidders receiving "cease and desist" letters/emails, basically telling them if they don't take down their vids (usually on their own site) that that company will pursue legal action against them. However, I've never heard of it going that far (because pretty much as soon as the vidder takes those specific vids down, that's the end of it).

I don't know the particulars in all of the various countries but my best advice is that if you ever receive a "cease and desist" notification, then definitely comply with it and take down whatever vid they've told you to. Backup any favorites you have at Youtube in case your account just inexplicably vanishes one day. (Some vidders have a secondary YT account they use just to keep their favorites in.)

The Organization For Transformative Works and other such people and groups have been pushing for the Fair Use Copyright Act to be amended so that things like fanvids fall into a legal, fair use of copyrighted material. I'm hopeful myself that one day both the TV, movie and music industries will see that vids can be great advertisement for their products and will no longer pursue any muting/disabling/deleting from places like Youtube. I know that I've bought many CDs after falling in love with the artist from a vid and I've gotten into entire fandoms such as Firefly and Doctor Who either directly or at least in part from seeing vids for them both, then I've purchased their DVD sets. So that's money made for those companies that came from the advertisement they received from vids.

Anyway, I'm sorry I don't have a more definite answer for you, I can't say with 100% certainty that you'll NEVER be asked to take down a vid or lose your account at Youtube or something along that line. But I think it's a fairly safe bet that you won't get a knock on the door from the police coming to take you to jail just because of your vids.

[soapbubbles511]

I suppose *making* them isn't illegal (well except for any illegally downloaded music/clips/vidding programs)... but if you paid for everything making them isn't the issue... its when you start broadcasting them on places like youtube that's the issue

Fox is the only one who seems to take issue with their clips being used in fanvids... everyone else seems to let it go under fair use because we've edited up the clips and only take issue with people who are posting full episodes/movies... the only people I've known that have been threatened with legal action are people who post full episodes online, not for making vids

and the vast majority of the time its the music companies that are the ones claiming copyright issues (but actually more and more of my vids have been coming back with just advertisements on them).... I'm guessing thats because we use the songs mostly untouched but the clips are edited and mostly have the sound taken out so there's a better case for fair use with the video then music

so having a computer full of your vids wouldn't be illegal... posting vids usually at worst will end in a vid being removed... arguably some copyright volation but not something they're going to take legal action with... it's the uploading of full episodes that I've heard of people getting threatening e-mails from the show owners to take down their sites
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