Questions tagged [fair-use]

An exception to the limitations that can be imposed by a copyright owner. A similar concept in the U.K. and other commonwealth jurisdictions is called "fair dealing."

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If I am sure that I have an argument for fair use, can I use shadowed silhouettes of copyright or trademark characters on the cover of my book? [closed]

I have a very specific idea for a book cover that involves using shadow silhouettes of copyrighted/trademarked characters. It is a non-fiction book about character arcs. The title and cover of the ...
Drask's user avatar
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1 answer
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Would using individual sentences from news articles for a language learning app be considered fair use?

Suppose a commercial language learning app displays a single sentence at a time to a user, with the purpose of reviewing the sentence to learn new words. In order to get examples of natural sentences ...
F Chopin's user avatar
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2 answers
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Hackintosh vs. fair use

Note: Cross-posted from SE SuperUser to get thoughts from legal experts here. Follow up question to Revisit the Hackintosh policy. Use case: I create a userscript (in a [licenced] Windows or a Linux)...
Gerold Broser's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
92 views

Legality of using book covers from Google Books API on a website

Under US copyright law, is it legal to download images of book covers from the Google Books API and display them on my website? The purpose pertains to obtaining product images for an online store ...
Thegerdfather's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

Can a song be used in a presentation for work?

Does it fall under that Fair Use Act of 1976 to include a song as the intro to a presentation for work if the presentation is being given for educational/teaching purposes?
Wesley Musgrove's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
761 views

Is it illegal for a firm to train an AI model on a CC BY-SA 4.0 corpus and make a commercial use of it without distributing the model under CC BY-SA?

https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/388551/178179 mentions that SE will force some firms to pay to be allowed to train an AI model on the SE data dump (CC BY-SA licensed) and make a commercial use of it ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
31 views

For a work to be considered "transformative" under fair use, does the "new expression, meaning or message" have to be about the original work?

One of the four factors used to determine whether use of copyrighted material is considered fair use is "the purpose and character of the use." The essence of this factor seems to be "...
T Hummus's user avatar
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2 answers
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Can I use text or ideas from Youtube Comments in a book or online work?

I recently ran into an interesting back and forth between quite a few people in youtube comments, and it was the topic I'm interested in writing about: whether it would be a book or just post it ...
Amateur Imagination's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
35 views

What legal questions must be answered to determine the international copyright status of generated art?

Below is my best understanding of how art is generated by machine learning. I understand that the copyright ownership of the final product and any infringement in the process is currently an open ...
lofidevops's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
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Can I use footage from House.gov in a (mostly) free web application?

Right now, I am working on an information service website relating to political offices in the U.S. This is something I'm working on in my own time, not for a company. But, I would like to potentially ...
Gmanicus's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
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Why does Japanese entertainment make such backhanded references to brands (e.g. WcDonalds instead of McDonalds)?

There's tons of examples. To name a few: MgRonald's and Sentucky Fried Chicken (instead of McDonald's and KFC) in Hataraku Maou-sama Attack Family (instead of Smash Brothers) in Jaku Kyara Tomozaki-...
chausies's user avatar
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1 answer
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Can a researcher use YouTube videos to train a ML model?

Manually migrating this from here because the answers were unsatisfactory: https://datascience.stackexchange.com/questions/26079/is-it-legal-to-scrape-youtube-videos-for-training-data Can a machine ...
belkarx's user avatar
  • 234
0 votes
1 answer
73 views

Selling Reading Guides For Novels

Can I create and sell reading guides for novels on teacher resource sites such as Teacher Pay Teacher without getting into copyright issues. I would, of course credit, the author for all of the book ...
Sarah Smith's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
88 views

Does fair use allow use of let's play videos without permission in the USA?

Let's say a vlogger is talking about video games they don't currently play. They need some sort of video to show while they are talking and so many will fall back to let's plays for videos. A let's ...
dsollen's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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Take part of a song slow it down a bit and put it on a loop

Lets say someone hypothetically took the beginning part of a song and slowed it down a bit and put it on a loop for 3 min.. In this scenario the original song was copyrighted. Would this be copyright ...
user55665484375's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
474 views

Why is a cover song not fair use? (But parody songs are?)

Considering fair use law, parody, transformative works: Weird Al always asks for permission for his parodies but many law professionals have stated he would not have to. Considering all this, why does ...
Opcode's user avatar
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3 answers
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Is Apple violating any specific rights of mine by preventing me from taking a fair use screenshot?

Apple's Safari web browser prevents you from taking a screenshot of DRM (Digital Rights Management) content, such as Netflix movies, by blacking out that part of screen (when taking screenshot) which ...
Dan's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
14 views

Uploading YouTube video about doing problem set from a college textbook/ other reference book [duplicate]

I am confused with the definition of fair use or educational use. I wonder whether publishing videos publicly on Youtube (or a similar website) about how to solve the problem in a textbook will ...
William Wong's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
137 views

Are random generators that use the names of fictional characters not infringing?

For example, if I create a random generator that uses the names of the characters from a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) video game plus a random string attached after the character name, and ...
user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
213 views

Is it legal for someone to publish a conversation from the Youtube comments section? What if they were one of the commenters?

If there was a situation where a journalist wanted to publish a back and forth conversation between two commenters that occurred in the Youtube comments section of a video by quoting the entire ...
queryfinder's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
50 views

How should I go about talking to an Intellectual Property / Copyright expert about an ecommerce product I want to sell?

I am developing a plan to offer a selection of products of similar design in a new online shop. These designs incorporate the Intellectual Property of others (large corporations) but in a way which I ...
Max McCarty's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
5k views

Can a wiki for a video game be created without authorization from the game creator?

Consider someone wants to create a wiki (user-editable community site) for Heroes of the Storm. The creator of a wiki site is not necessarily the author of any substantive content on the site, but ...
user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
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Rules behind using news logos on websites

I see many people on LinkedIn using the logo of news sites they were featured on or had a PR piece republished on. What are the US laws around the use of such logos? What happens if someone falsely ...
Nirav Desai's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
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What are the laws surrounding videos discussing a news article?

Often I'll see a YouTuber discuss a news article on MarketWatch or CNBC. He'll show quotes from the article, lay out the gist of it, and then agree or disagree with it giving his own opinion. What are ...
Nirav Desai's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
83 views

how to fair use another company's logo in personal blogs for review or tutorial purpose?

Here is my initial question about adding creator information on some "artwork" that also contains other companies' logos. How to properly add creator information when the art work is done ...
Maxfield's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
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Can I share a copy of Adobe Standalone Flash Player?

As you all know by now, Flash is dead. However, people still want to play flash games. People used to be able to download the standalone adobe flash player to keep playing games flash games, but ...
Some Guy's user avatar
  • 475
0 votes
2 answers
92 views

How to properly add creator information when the art work is done with other companies' logo?

For a straightforward example, I would like to add a watermark on all the pictures hosted on my website, but at the same time, some images have other companies' logos and other text. Sure I don't own ...
Maxfield's user avatar
  • 505
1 vote
0 answers
24 views

Can I make animated summaries of shows/movies?

I was wondering if I could make animated short videos (like a minute long). I was planning to make short animations doing a very basic version of the stories, they would include all of my own sounds ...
John's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
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Determining Fair Use of Images in an Online Encyclopedia

Background Fair use hinges on four factors, which are then weighed by judges: Purpose and Character of the Use Nature of the Copyrighted Work Amount of Copyrighted Work Used Effect of the Use on ...
Attribute's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
98 views

Transcription law

(I'd be interested in UK, US, or any internet/international biased opinions here; as well as anything I could further ready up on!) Let's assume a physical Text exists. Is it legal for person A to ...
JP.'s user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
67 views

Frequency lists derived from copyrighted works

If someone were to publish word frequency lists derived from copyrighted films or books on their website would this constitute fair use, or be a breach of copyright? The word frequency lists would ...
JDA's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
93 views

Use of NFL footage or links to YouTube for Educational Life Coaching

Suppose that a certified life coach wants to use football principals of quarterbacking to help individuals have a visual of what it means to quarterback your life. Would showing live or YouTube ...
Janet's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
687 views

Can I use Google Cloud text-to-speech to create and monetize an audiobook from a public domain book?

I have text for a book in the public domain. I use Google Cloud speech-to-text to convert the book into an audio format. Can I distribute/monetize the resulting audiobook as I wish? Previous question ...
jshackle's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
113 views

Must a work be "essential" for fair use to apply?

In comments on this answer (now moved to chat) user supercat wrote: While there seems to be a belief that use of short clips is automatically fair use, a key requirement of fair use is that the ...
David Siegel's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
161 views

Does Google have a right to block our app for trademark use?

In a recent app store update, we've included in our description the names of several brands that we support through functionality in our app. Some if not all of these names are trademarked in the ...
iLoch's user avatar
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20 votes
2 answers
6k views

Is it legal to download and run pirated abandonware because I'm curious about the software?

Is downloading Windows 95 and running it just because I'm curious about it legal? Purpose and character of the use: it's noncommercial, and I am doing it to learn about the software, but I'm not sure ...
Someone's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
370 views

Can I use an image of SpongeBob in the thumbnail of my video about the cartoon?

Suppose I made a commentary video about SpongeBob. Would using an image of SpongeBob in the thumbnail be considered fair use in this case?
Tamás Sengel's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
261 views

How can we answer questions about tabletop game rules without infringing copyright?

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/ is a stack dealing with table top RPG games, the most prominent being Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). Answering questions almost always relies on information from rule ...
user45896's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
247 views

Would reproducing a game for a school class fall within fair use?

For a game development/software engineering course that I am designing (in the public schools), I would like the final course activity to involve creating a game as a whole class over a long period. ...
Ben I.'s user avatar
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-1 votes
2 answers
165 views

Is this considered copyright infringement?

Location: United States Let's imagine... A created web design. B is inspired by A's design. B creates similar design. Is B's work deemed as copyright infringement? Person A Design Person B Design ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
101 views

What are the rules about using a book in a video in some way?

I want to read educational books, then post tutorials about the related subjects about the book. For example, I may read a Spanish textbook and then make a YouTube playlist about the subjects in the ...
John Doe's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
88 views

Is it legal to convert a png logo of a company you're partnering with and convert it to a SVG file for them to use it on an application we made?

Is it legal to convert a png logo of a company you're partnering with and convert it to a SVG file for them to use it on an application we made? I am thinking there's a general license that forbids ...
Sayaman's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
86 views

Advertisements and fair use

If someone publishes an article about advertisements that included screen captures from a website, is there any risk of being sued or would that qualify as fair use? If it makes a difference, assume ...
JimmyJames's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
33 views

My app modifies the display of website content. Can I suggest a specific list of sites for my target audience?

I'm working on an app idea which offers users a "read view" of websites, which includes stripping the content of ads, changing font and changing the layout of sites to make it easier for ...
F Chopin's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
52 views

Is it a copyright violation to use (C) texts I legally own to train an A.I.?

Let's use J.K. Rowlings and Shakespeare as an example. I want to train an A.I. to produce stories that look like a mix of both author's styles. The real example should use over 40 different authors, ...
Mindwin Remember Monica's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
171 views

Is it legal to only copy all the words from a dictionary?

I am dealing with a language that has only one published physical dictionary so far. I need a list of all words from that language. The dictionary has a traditional copyright text: All rights ...
Kamil's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
69 views

About using google maps

In the terms established by the usage of Google: 3.2.1 General Restrictions. Customer will not: (a) copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, decompile, translate, disassemble, or ...
Francisco Javier Garcia Cabrer's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
378 views

Is it legal to record streaming video for time shifting?

In the UK there is an explicit exception to copyright for the purpose of time shifting: Details of the exceptions to copyright that allow limited use of copyright works without the permission of the ...
Dave's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
88 views

Fair-use of mathematics educational YouTube series based on "Byrne's Euclid" (1847) and its latest renditions

I want to create a mathematics educational video series on YouTube based on "Byrne's Euclid" (1847), which in turn, was a rendition of "Euclid's Elements" (circa 300 BC). The ...
niran90's user avatar
  • 113
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is it "fair use" to summarize a movie?

Could I take about, say, 15 minutes of clips from a movie to use as a visual (and perhaps using some audio) along with my originally written and voiced movie summary? Would the resulting work be ...
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