employing fair use in public history projects

COPYRIGHT & FAIR USE:

PUBLIC HISTORY

Pat Aufderheide Center for Social Media American University

THE PURPOSE OF

COPYRIGHT

ONE PURPOSE:

TO PROMOTE THE CREATION OF CULTURE

By:

•Rewarding creators with limited monopoly

• Encouraging new makers to use existing culture

WHY BALANCE?

• All culture createdAll culture createdon existing culture on existing culture (we used to know that)(we used to know that)

• The First Amendment The First Amendment (no censorship)(no censorship)

“Standing on the shoulders of

giants.”

HOW WE FORGOT BALANCE:• Copyright term

extension

• Default copyright

• Punishing penalties (statutory damages)

• Large content holders’ aggressive tactics

The Escape Hatch!FAIR USE:

FAIRFAIR USEUSE •Legal, unauthorized use of Legal, unauthorized use of copyrighted material—under some copyrighted material—under some circumstancescircumstances

•FlexibleFlexible

•BroadBroad

•AdaptableAdaptable

INDIVIDUALS FEAR…

• Will I get it wrong?

• Will I get sued? $125K+ per infringement!!)

• Will my boss/librarian/client get angry?

BEST PRACTICES

COMMUNITIES DEFINE FAIR USE FOR THEMSELVES

• Documentary filmmakers

• Film scholars

• Media literacy teachers

• More

DOCUMENTARYFILMMAKERS

RESULTS• Broadcasters program films

• Cablecasters program films

• Filmmakers develop new kinds of projects

• Television/web companies expand their plans

• All insurers of errors and omissions insurance now accept fair use claims

ONLINE VIDEO

OTHER CODES useful for public historians

• Media literacy (video contests/teaching)

• Dance archivists (using archival resources for display/podcasting/digital ILL/preservation)

• Scholars’ (eg publishing)

OTHER OPTIONS• Creative Commons (eg CC on

Flickr)

• Public domain (e.g. The Commons, Library of Congress)

• Special exemptions

• Classrooms

• Libraries

• Print-Disabled

Please feel free to share this presentation in its entirety. For excerpting, kindly employ the principles of fair use.

CONTACT INFO

Pat Aufderheide Center for Social MediaSchool of Communication American University Washington, DC paufder@american.edu202-885-2069