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."
280
questions
-3
votes
3
answers
153
views
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 ...
- 9
1
vote
1
answer
90
views
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 ...
- 305
-3
votes
2
answers
84
views
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)...
-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 ...
- 109
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?
- 163
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 ...
- 5,357
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 "...
- 610
0
votes
2
answers
55
views
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 ...
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 ...
- 101
0
votes
1
answer
46
views
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 ...
- 3
5
votes
1
answer
461
views
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-...
- 3,269
0
votes
1
answer
98
views
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 ...
- 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 ...
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 ...
- 8,176
1
vote
1
answer
40
views
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 ...
- 526
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 ...
- 121
1
vote
3
answers
203
views
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 ...
- 129
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 ...
- 101
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 ...
user48067
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 ...
- 11
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 ...
- 11
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 ...
user47165
1
vote
0
answers
57
views
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 ...
- 11
0
votes
0
answers
31
views
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 ...
- 11
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 ...
- 505
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 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 ...
- 11
0
votes
1
answer
88
views
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 ...
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 ...
- 115
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 ...
- 13
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 ...
- 21
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 ...
- 45
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 ...
- 112k
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 ...
- 123
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 ...
- 13.3k
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?
- 123
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 ...
- 29
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. ...
- 315
-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
...
user45829
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 ...
- 1
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 ...
- 5,160
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 ...
- 446
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 ...
- 305
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, ...
- 1,620
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 ...
- 143
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 ...
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 ...
- 817
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 259