Copyright and Fair Use Issues Clash
The internet is an amazing tool for us as journalists. It makes finding the boring but important information easier, it allows our readers to access our content faster and it allows people to interact in ways that were only dreamed about many years ago. Of course with every new invention and every new shortcut, you could argue that people are allowed to share too much. What happens when a scene from a popular movie is parodied on YouTube? The answer to that question is nebulous at best. The reason for the muddied water is that YouTube allows its users who own the copyright to take material down at their leisure and as they so choose. What you end up with are YouTube users such as the producers of the now famous German film “Downfall” taking material off of YouTube to a loud roar of people saying, “Hold on a second.”
Producers of the film are taking down YouTube videos
After reading several stories on this it truly is interesting how fair use and copyright work can clash. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) states that works by the original owners can be used by other people, third party individuals who are not the copyright owners, and parody the original and call it fair use. Normally that is fine and dandy, but the caveat here is that YouTube allows original copyright owners to take down material under YouTube’s “Content ID” filter wherein an owner can take everything down, most things down or some things down to his/her liking or satisfaction.
If most of these cases hit courts here in the US there wouldn’t be much of a problem. The trick here is walking the line between users adapting that famous scene of Hitler in the bunker and dubbing it with subtitles of Hitler not liking Myspace or Hitler being upset that Twitter is down. YouTube isn’t budging on its stance that for now, users can use that “Content ID” filter to manage videos with their works. Most people would try going the DMCA route, but not Constantin Production. They found the loop that allows them to manage content using YouTube as a proxy DMCA such that they effectively win by keeping out what they want kept out. In order to ensure true fair use, one man, Brad Templeton, who is a board member of Electronic Frontier Foundation, decided to do a parody of the film but with DMCA by his side so it couldn’t get taken down.
What do you think are some good examples of past fair use cases? If the director of the film likes the parodies, why should the production company even bother taking material down? Is there a point when YouTube needs to step in and tighten the “Content ID” filter requirements? All of these are very good questions as YouTube grows into a ubiquitous site where the lines will start to become even more blurred between material third party individuals fairly use and plain old copyright infringement.
