EFF Wins New Legal Protections for Video Remixing

[khyron]

EFF Wins New Legal Protections for Video Remixing
Copyright Office Announces Exemptions to Mitigate DMCA Harms

Crucial support for the successful request on behalf of video remix artists – carving out new legal protection for this important art form – was provided by the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW). The OTW gathered evidence and presented testimony about the DMCA's adverse impact on several communities of remix creators, who use short clips from movies to build new creative works. The Copyright Office's decision broadens EFF's previously successful exemption request, which allows for taking short excerpts from DVDs in creating noncommercial works, by also protecting the use of clips from online streaming or downloading services.

"Remix videos are thriving on YouTube and other sites, offering dynamic criticism and commentary on popular movies as well as popular culture. It's a great example of how new technologies foster free expression, yet the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA endanger these important works," said McSherry. "We're thrilled that the Copyright Office broke new ground in protecting remix artists. We can't let misguided federal law block a new form of art and expression."

[source: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff- ... ions-video]

[details: https://www.eff.org/node/72131]

Some caveats, just to be clear about this: First, this is a legal event regarding only the USA and not necessarily pertinent elsewhere. Second, it by no means fully "legalizes" AMV because there are plenty of other copyfight-related issues facing AMV besides commercial video sourcing. Third, by posting this I'm not in any way claiming "oh look guys, the EFF fixed everything stupid about copyright in the USA and it's all roses now." Not at all.

This is wonderful progress however, and something to be proud of, IMHO, especially if you're an editor living under US law and especially if you're a voter and/or an EFF member who's been loud and proud with your support of these kinds of reforms.

The news is always filled with such negative crap, I felt like sharing this here in case anyone missed it with everything else going on right now.

[trythil]

Wow, politicians and lawyers doing good?



A serious comment: You're definitely right about the "not all roses" bit; the ruling doesn't seem to add much in the way of protections for remix videos or AMVs in particular. My reading of p. 27 - 31 tells me that "fictional films" do not benefit from this expansion at all.

Well, it is something.

[khyron]

My reading of p. 27 - 31 tells me that "fictional films" do not benefit from this expansion at all.

IANAL, but looking over that section there are several distinctions made, and it does not appear to me that "fictional" works which also are both "transformative" and "noncommercial" would necessarily be ruled out. It sounds more to me like the specific use cases that AMV editors would be interested in, along with other "fictional" use cases, simply weren't discussed/argued in detail during this proceeding...but to me that sounds a lot more like untested than verboten.

[Shin-AMV]

I just skimmed through it, but the jist of what it seemed to say was that while many fictional films and the sort would most likely fall within fair use under the current DMCA and copyright law structure they didn't want to give it a blanket exception under this expansion of exceptions because not all fictional films would fall within the fair use exceptions. So basically its a case by case basis still using Section 107 of the Copyright Act (i.e. commercial/non-commercial, transformative, etc. etc.) but it helps in the sense that you could probably still cite this in a case brief about how the court recognized that fictional films and the like can fall within fair use in general and then hammer away that <insert AMV here> is more like fictional films that fall within fair use and doesn't damage/dilute/harm/etc the original copyrighted work.

Or something like that, I dunno, I'm tired.