From Hack to Herzog: Copyright and Fair Use

Anyone appearing in your video should sign a release form, even if they do not have a speaking part. 

Fair use is a doctrine of US Copyright Law, allowing for the limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the copyright holder. It permits legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another creator's work using a 4-part balancing test. The tricky part about Fair Use is that the balancing test is subjective and open to interpretation.

The four factors judges consider are:

1. purpose and character of your use
2. nature of the copyrighted work
3. amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
4. effect of the use upon the potential market.

For more information, Stanford has a good website on the fair use doctrine.

The Center for Social Media has information specifically on fair use for documentaries.

This information was taken from the University of Wisconsin's Copyright for Digital Assignment's LibGuide.

Questions? Contact our copyright experts at copyright@uic.edu.