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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Pictures vs 3D Models - What's the difference?
If you want to make a video game that contains real world products, you generally need to obtain permission from the company that makes that product to include it in your game.
For example, if you ...
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Can I reproduce a trademarked logo in my blog?
I have a blog about marketing. I am writing a new post where I talk about different Apple logos. Can I make a screen shot from Apple website and include that image in my blog? I just want to ...
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Is it legal to write and sell Instructions on how to play board games?
For every board game that I am learning, I am writing 1-3 page instructions about the game and how to set up the game and play it.
Having 3 page summary of instructions (as opposed to 20 pages) ...
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Is it legal to use TV network logos on my own discussion forums about those networks?
Let's say that I am making a forum utility to discuss topics of television ... ESPN, CSPAN, CBS, etc.
If the channel is called ESPN and the forum is made specifically to discuss what is on that ...
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What are the copyright restrictions regarding USA's icons/monuments?
I'm working on a project that will compile some of the most iconic elements of the United States of America (e.g. Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, the Navy, the Air Force, the Liberty Bell, the ...
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Are there legal consequences for giving away my own musical transcriptions of copyrighted works on a website?
I've transcribed a lot of video game music in my lifetime, and am interested in making these sheet music transcriptions freely available for download on a website. I see that a lot of other websites ...
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In the US, when is fair use a defense to copyright infringement?
What is fair use in the US? When would it be a successful defense to copyright infringement?
user3851
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Is it considered "Fair Use" to use multiple TV audio clips in a commercial product?
Say I take short audio clips from various TV shows and bundle them up into an application, would it be considered fair use or is that not allowed under copyright law or some other law? The final ...
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Does quoting documentation as comments in programming code qualify as Fair Use?
Here's an example of how I might document a function call to some external API, external library etc. Their API may have T&Cs, or the libary may force me to abide by a license, that's fine, but ...
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What would constitute Fair Use in a work that is derivative of a parody?
Let's say that there's a work B, which under U.S. law seems to count clearly as a transformative use (parody, satire or the like) of another work A, and thus subject to fair use. So what about a work ...
user4558
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Is it legal to modify the display of website content?
Several apps and sites like longform and readability offer users a "read view" of other sites, which includes stripping the content of ads and changing font to make the text easier to read. I am ...
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Is printing a personal card using some parts of a board game considered Fair Use?
I'm planning on doing a personal card using only the original layout and background design of a Magic The Gathering card.
I have read that the art, mana symbols, "Tapping" symbol and Font have ...
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Can I reference the name of a museum in an art book title?
I am self publishing a printed book of drawings I've made at a natural sciences museum. Is it okay to use the name of the museum in the title as Drawing at (insert museum name)? I do plan to sell ...
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What is the rationale behind fair use exemptions?
"Fair use" is one exemption that allows the use of copyrighted material.
From what I understand, this exemption falls into one of two broad categories:
Teaching, research, news reporting, etc. ...
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out of print board game - scan of board permitted?
There is a simple children's board game that is apparently out of print. May I make a color scan of the board and include it in a scholarly article?
May I include the scan in a blog post?
I want to ...
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copyright, fair use and online dictionaries/translations/word list
For a language app I need short word bilingual definitions and word lists, containing info such as word frequency and part of speech.
I would like to use a selection of many online sources to do this....
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Can I release someone else's work under creative commons or some other license, if its fair use?
Okay, let's say a website has some content. You can take a small amount, what would usually constitute fair use, and incorporate into a larger work. You know put this under a creative commons license ...
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YouTube - fair / allowed / legal use - is it OK to record music performances?
Quite often I take a GoPro / iPhone and record fragments of a music performance.
Quite often I upload the content to YouTube.
Quite often I receive following message:
The copyright holder, which ...
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Is copyright infringement if I use the image of a video game character in a homage spirit?
Is it copyright infringement if I put the face of Mario (for example) in a piece of software (as a Easter egg) to celebrate Mario's Anniversary? This piece of software/product is distributed in Latin ...
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Marketing and Fair Use
The company I work for sells several products. One has a title that lines up very well in the One Ring poem from Tolkien's LOTR. I would essentially be replacing the phrase One Ring with the product ...
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Trading Card Database - Copyright Infringement or Fair Use?
I would like to create a text-only database for collectible trading card games. The database would contain card names, ability text, flavor text, etc. Images would not be included. This project would ...
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Copyright when translating an Interview
I'm interested in having some television interviews translated from French to English. I'd like to distribute a translated transcript.
Would this be an infringement of copyright law? If so who gives ...
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Is it legal to post GIFs/videos of NFL plays online?
On some blogs I see GIFs or videos of certain plays from NFL games. Is it legal to create these and post them online? You always hear the disclaimer on TV about using the footage, but I see this stuff ...
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Could I infringe a copyright if I use content available for free online?
I made a video and uploaded it to YouTube. I created the video, but I attached an audio track I found online for free.
How do I know if I am allowed to use this audio in this way?
If I pay for ...
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Fair use of text snippets in a dictionary
If a dictionary (about the use of scientific terminology) includes snippets from several sources, would an authorization be needed from each copyright holder?
Each entry in the dictionary would ...
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May I write a novel based on another novel?
Like if I want to write a book series about Harry Potter character Rita Skeeter's life, may I do it? I always hear that this isn't allowed. But as far as I know some people have written a book about ...
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Is it legal to use Youtube thumbnails on another website?
Let's say I have a website where each page has an embedded Youtube video, and there are also a list of this web pages, can this list display those video thumbnails as the image of the link to the page ...
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Is WINE illegal?
Is WINE (WINE Is Not an Emulator) illegal?
Given that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has held in Oracle v. Google that APIs are copyrightable, is WINE (which reproduces the Windows ...
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Is there a fair use exception for trademarks?
The copyright law has the famous fair-use exception, where you can legally use some parts of copyrighted works without having to pay any royalties to, or ask any permission from, the copyright holder.
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What is the "area" of copyright claims and fair use of songs?
There are many lyrics videos and other audio visualizer videos using songs they clearly don't have ownership own. Many of these receive a copyright strike on Youtube and are subsequently taken down, ...
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Can I host free government or bank forms on my website?
If I host government forms or any other free forms on my website just for consolidation or ease-of-access, could I face any legal issues?
I live in India.
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Is it legal to republish lyrics?
Can a lyrics web site be legal, assuming there are no special agreements with the artists?
Is publishing song lyrics considered "fair use?"
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Can "Dumb Starbucks" be legally considered Fair Use as satire or parody?
About a year ago, a new, familiar-looking coffee shop opened in LA. Their reasoning for this was, basically, that it's making fun of the popular coffeehouse chain and is thus fair use:
Naturally, it ...
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Is it fair use to discuss a fictional work on a webpage?
On my for-profit website, users can rate and comment on works of literature, film, and music, most of which are copyrighted. The only information I include is:
1.) Title
2.) Release date
3.) MPAA ...
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Can I sell my notes on a book without copyright infringment?
I read a machine learning book. I invested a lot of time to make extensive and clear notes. Some concepts required a lot of research to understand. I have explained some concepts in my own way. ...
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Is using font on a business card considered commercial use?
I'm currently designing a business card for a client and looking for an applicable font. A lot of these fonts are marked with some sort of payment required for commercial use. While I don't plan to ...
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Could a webpage about a fictional character, that reveals no detail about said character, be considered fair use?
It is my understanding that since fictional characters generally belong to copyrighted works, revealing details about a fictional character on a for-profit website falls outside of fair use and makes ...
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How does the exclusive right to public display apply, e.g., to t-shirts?
17 USC §106(5) says that the copyright holder of work holds the exclusive right to display the work publicly:
(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, ...
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Song Lyric Sites
How do song lyrics sites (such as azlyrics.com) legally operate? It seems that they can't claim fair use because they are making money (ads) and that they are publishing complete song lyrics.
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Is it legal to include Apple emoji in a commercial printed book?
Could I sell a printed work, say a book, which included Apple's emoji characters? Also if I redrew them in the same style only for purposes of providing a higher resolution version of the emoji would ...
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Is it legal include an image from Wikipedia into a lead-generating e-book?
I'm writing an e-book, which is supposed to generate leads in the following way:
People visit my landing page.
There, they see a text like "Enter your e-mail address and get this e-book for free".
...
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How can I decide, whether I can include a particular image in my commercial blog posts and e-books?
Imagine I have a blog, on which people can download some free e-book. The purpose of the blog and e-book is to establish connection with potential buyers and eventually sell them something.
Imagine ...
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