Can i use copyrighted material on my website [Glossary]



Last updated : Aug 12, 2022
Written by : Lona Orewiler
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Can i use copyrighted material on my website

Can I use copyrighted content on my website?

They can't make money from the things you create either. You can still cite and refer to other sources (including copyrighted materials) in your work. But to use, copy, or change a copyrighted work, you need permission from the person who holds the copyright. This permission is called a license.

How can I legally use copyrighted content?

One way to make sure your intended use of a copyrighted work is lawful is to obtain permission or a license from the copyright owner. Contact a copyright owner or author as far as pos- sible in advance of when you want to use the material specified in your permissions request.

How do I avoid copyright claim on my website?

  1. Reproduce a certain work in copies.
  2. Prepare derivative works based upon the work.
  3. Distribute copies of the work to the public.
  4. Perform the work.
  5. Display the copyrighted work.
  6. Or perform the work publicly by means of digital audio transmission.

What are the 4 fair use exceptions to copyright?

Fair use of copyrighted works, as stated in US copyright law, “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.”

How much can you copy without infringing copyright?

You may use up to 10%, but no more than 3 minutes, of a single movie, TV show or video. You may use up to 10%, but no more than 30 seconds, of music and lyrics from a single musical work. You must purchase performance rights to hold a live performance of a copyrighted work.

Can I use copyrighted material if I give credit?

When you use parts of someone else's work, it's legally and ethically important to give copyright credit. Giving proper credit is especially essential when you use copyrighted material for profit as part of your business, because you may be sued for copyright infringement.

What happens if you use copyrighted material without permission?

If you use a copyrighted work without authorization, the owner may be entitled to bring an infringement action against you. There are circumstances under the fair use doctrine where a quote or a sample may be used without permission.

What falls under fair use?

For example, in the United States, copyright rights are limited by the doctrine of "fair use," under which certain uses of copyrighted material for, but not limited to, criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research may be considered fair.

What counts as copyright infringement?

As a general matter, copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner.

What are some examples of copyright infringement?

  • Downloading music or films without paying for their use.
  • Copying any literary or artistic work without a license or written agreement.
  • Recording a film in a movie theater.
  • Posting a video on your company's website which features copyrighted words or songs.

Are images on a website copyrighted?

Online photos and graphics are protected by copyright law, just like any other original work. The photographer owns the copyright in the images from the moment she creates them, unless she is working for hire with an agency or other employer. In that case, the agency or employer owns the copyright.

When can you use copyrighted material?

Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder for purposes such as criticism, parody, news reporting, research and scholarship, and teaching. There are four factors to consider when determining whether your use is a fair one.

What is not protected by copyright?

Not Protected by Copyright: Titles, names, short phrases and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents.

Which of these would be considered fair use of material from a website?

Section 107 of the Copyright Act gives examples of purposes that are favored by fair use: “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, [and] research.” Use for one of these “illustrative purposes” is not automatically fair, and uses for other purposes can be ...

How do you get around copyright?

  1. Do not copy anything.
  2. Avoid non-virgin development.
  3. Avoid access to prior design work.
  4. Document right to use.
  5. Negotiate for enhanced warranty and indemnity clauses.
  6. Document your own work.

What are examples of fair use?

U.S. fair use factors. Examples of fair use in United States copyright law include commentary, search engines, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, and scholarship. Fair use provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor test.

How much do I need to edit a copyrighted image to legally use it?

How much do you have to change artwork to avoid copyright? There is actually no percentage by which you must change an image to avoid copyright infringement. While some say that you have to change 10-30% of a copyrighted work to avoid infringement, that has been proven to be a myth.

What is the difference between copyright and fair use?

Fair use only goes as far as being able to use it without making money off of it. A copyright gives you full ownership of the work, allowing you to claim it as your own and potentially make money off of it.

Can I just put any YouTube video on my website without permission?

In general, it's fine to post video that you create yourself on your website. Once you create a video, it is automatically copyrighted, and you have full rights to it unless stated otherwise by a sharing service.

How long does copyright last?

The term of copyright for a particular work depends on several factors, including whether it has been published, and, if so, the date of first publication. As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.


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Can i use copyrighted material on my website


Comment by Venetta Hopewell

how do I use movie and TV clips in my videos without getting a copyright strike and how does Evan Carmichael build a whole channel using other people's clips but doesn't get demonetised and how can you use copyrighted material in your videos legally we're about to explain all of that and more so sit tight what's up legends I hope you are having an incredible day and I'm hoping it's about to get even more incredible once you've watched this video because once you understand this concepts and you're able to use other people's material in your videos I can genuinely transform your content but John isn't the copyright system on YouTube broken no I actually don't think the copyright system on YouTube is quite as bad as most people make out I'm not saying it's perfect but the big problem is most people don't fully understand it and see the process through to completion and that means they often don't get fair results which is why you probably see a lot of people complaining about it but we will get into all the details of that later in this video the first thing we need to understand is two very important words that are going to completely transform how you think about copyrighted material and those words are fair use now fair use is not just a YouTube thing fair use is a legal doctrine that applies to copyright law and it basically says that there are certain circumstances and situations where you are allowed to use other people's work and their copyrighted content in your own content but to understand what those situations and circumstances are there are four key points and we're going to go through each of them right now for simplicity I'm gonna try and translate the legal jargon of fair use into more practical and relatable terms we're all going to understand and so bearing that in mind the first point about fair use is whether your use of the work is transformative and what I mean by that is are you changing the value or meaning of some way from the original work or are you just stealing it essentially so in a more practical real-world example but let's say you're watching an episode of one of your favorite TV shows since I use this on my own channel let's look at Rekha Morty you're watching an episode you're thinking huh this is a really good episode I'm gonna post this on YouTube and so you just rip the entire episode as a file upload it to YouTube that is definitely not fair use you have not transformed it at all that's piracy and so that is not going to go well however what I did in my video is that I took elements of wreckin were to construct a new narrative it was a completely different work that was making a completely different point it was an educational video using using the original work but to do something completely different so just completely taking the work and reusing it is not okay but taking it and transforming it to something new changing the meaning changing the value changing what it is about that normally would class as being transformative hopefully you still with me here because the second point of fair use is the amount of the copyrighted material you use in relation to the overall length of the copyrighted material so again putting that in our Rick and Morty example when you're using a full episode you are literally taking 100% of the work and using now just using a very small clip it's actually a very tiny fraction of the whole work and so that is normally much more justifiable as fair use so it's a case of when you're looking at using copyrighted material are you trying to use the entire thing or a big chunk of it or the heart of what it's about or are you just taking a very small element of it because if you are that's a high chance that it's gonna fall under fair use the third factor of fair use that they consider is the effects that you using the copyrighted material will have on the commercial success of the original copyrighted material so if what you're doing with someone else's work is going to negatively affect them it's going to potentially hurt their sales stop people from buying it because they can just watch yours instead then that is less likely to be fair use than if doesn't remotely affect the commercial success of the original then that's more likely to be fair use and then the fourth and final factor of fair use that's a lot of F's is the nature of the copyrighted work so a couple of things here if it's something that's already been published which almost certainly it will be if you're using it that's more likely to be classed as fair use if it's something that's factual you know for example if you're taking something from a biography or something that's been published as fact that definitely helps your case for fair use and certainly if you're using it in kind of like an educational way you're trying to present facts rather than just trying to purely profit from it that's gonna help your case for fair use as well and let me now just take this opportunity to congratulate you because the fact you're still here at this point and made it through all that legal stuff shows that your attention span is much better than most people but the fact is we have to cover those kind of boring points because that is the heart of what fair uses and once you understand that that's how you can determine whether you can legally use other people's copyrighted material in your own work those are the key factors but just as a very final point to summarize all of this with fair use if we go back to that example I mentioned with that Rick and Morty video I posted that was exclusively using clips from the TV show rekha Morty now hopefully you can see why that falls under fair use and why just posting an entire episode of the show Woodham because the video I did not only was it transformational because it was changing the meaning of the original work number two it was only using a very small portion of the overall work it wasn't using an entire episode it was just little clips number three it's not remotely affecting the commercial success of Rick and Morty people aren't gonna stop paying for Rick and Morty and stop watching the show just because of that video if anything it helps boost people watching the show maybe a couple of people discovered it from the video in fact I actually know one person who did and number four it was done with an educational intense not purely just trying to profit from it so that kind of covers all four of those fair you factors so I'm pretty sure I'm in the clear there but and it is a big button now just because you know you are in the clear for fair use doesn't mean that someone can't still copyright claim your video and this brings us back to the beginning of this video where I was saying a lot of youtubers complain the copyright system just doesn't work because even if it's fair you still gain people trying to claim their video and the reason for this is that some companies who own footage like you know production companies who own the rights to movies and TV shows they're not spending time watching videos and going oh is this fair use does this hit these factors they see a video o


Thanks for your comment Venetta Hopewell, have a nice day.
- Lona Orewiler, Staff Member


Comment by pokyappz

you're working hard to improve your website rank higher in Google and get good traffic you feel pretty good about all things digital then all of a sudden BAM you find a copied version of your website or a crucial piece of content so what do you do you contact a lawyer do you rewrite your content or do you punch one of your computer monitors today we're going to answer these questions as we dive into what to do when your website content gets stolen first off I totally get that angry reaction when you first see another site that's copied your content word-for-word or stolen your site's design and added their own content to it it's super frustrating and discouraging and I've put in your shoes many times fortunately I've got some good advice here on how to handle it we're going to go over three options today of how to approach this issue and no punching your monitor is not one of them to start one approach is the legal action approach before we start disclaimer I'm certainly not a lawyer and this is not legal advice if you've taken the steps to have your website copyrighted you could work with an intellectual property law firm to pursue legal action against somebody who has stolen your site's design or content getting your content copyrighted is a big process that can take a while but once that's done a knowledgeable and reputable IP law firm can help out with the next steps if your design or content is proprietary in nature this can be a good step but in general I don't recommend going with this option for a few reasons it can be very time-consuming and expensive to copyright your site and pursue legal action the website you're trying to take action on might be difficult to track down and you can end up investing a lot of time and money with little results that said this can be a good option if your circumstances dictated a second option is to take a couple of quick steps to lessen the impact that stolen website content has on your site without needing legal action to do this I recommend filing a DMCA claim with Google this can be done in just a minutes and let's Google know that somebody has stolen your content and you want that site removed from Google's index Google typically takes very quick action on these and it can help alleviate any potential impact and search another thing you can do is contact the offending sites web host and file a complaint with them hosting companies don't like it when people host stolen content on their servers and I've personally had very good luck getting sites taken down who are in violation by sending a nice email to their web post along with some proof of the stolen content there are a few quick ways to figure out who's hosting a particular web site that has your stolen content on it one of the easiest ways is to go to who's hosting this com or Google who's hosting this and you can use a tool to drop in their website URL and it will spit back who's hosting that website the final option is a strange one but in a lot of circumstances is the right one do nothing yes it's challenging to bottle up all of that anger and then sit on your hands but the facts are that website content design and images are stolen millions of times per day and there's very little that you can do about it Google has gotten really great at determining who the original creator of a piece of content is and then giving them proper credit in search results so it's very rare nowadays that a copied website can negatively impact you in search as I mentioned before it can be challenging to track down who's behind a site was still in content so your time may be better spent continuing to make your site more amazing so that more people will want to steal your content having your content stolen is a side effect of having a popular well trafficked website nowadays ultimately it is up to you on how you want to approach things when this happens but these three strategies should help guide you in the right direction for your business


Thanks pokyappz your participation is very much appreciated
- Lona Orewiler


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