Originally Posted by David H. Lawrence XVII on ActingAnswers.com
Since Napster gave the world a taste of easy and media hyped piracy, a generation of users has felt no need to respect intellectual property rights. Google’s video site, YouTube, has gone to great lengths to make sure its producer partners are protected from unauthorized performance of their works. Sometimes, though, your acting reels will get caught in the middle, even though you’re perfectly allowed to use your scenes from copyrighted works in your acting reels. Here’s why, and here’s how to get them back up on YouTube if they get taken down.
You’ve worked hard on your demo reel, everything’s set – you’re about to let the world know about it, and you open your email inbox to find a takedown notice from YouTube.
What?
The notice I got when I put my demo reel up on YouTube read:
Your video has been identified and removed from public display on YouTube because you may not have the necessary permission to make it available on YouTube. The material identified in your video, the person claiming ownership of the material, and the policy they have designated for its use on YouTube are detailed below.
Material Copyright Holder Policy Countries
Video from CBS Internet Rights Reserved
You have the following options:
Do Nothing
Your video will continue to be hidden from YouTube viewers.
Dispute Claim
If you believe that the video at issue is your original content, has been misidentified by our systems, or that you are otherwise authorized to use it without consent, you can file a dispute claim.
Pretty ominous, and enough to scare an actor into leaving well enough alone and just using the video on their own website, hoping the powers that be at CBS don’t find them.
You should know your rights, and act accordingly: you have the right, under the Fair Use tests in the US Copyright Code, to use clips from your work in your reel, without having to secure any permission from the networks or studios you do your work for.
So how does YouTube even know I did The Unit (it’s one of the scenes in my reel)? Because YouTube has had so many problems with people knowingly and unknowingly posting videos that contain copyrighted works, they’ve worked with producers like the networks and studios that release films theatrically (your customers) to develop software that looks for signatures in works registered with YouTUbe.
In a nutshell, the producer sends over episodes of television and copies of films, and the works get stored in a database at YouTube. Then, when videos get posted by YouTube users, the video and audio are both scanned for the same content in the works in their database. When they find a match, the authorities are alerted and the notices get sent out.
YouTube shoots first and asks questions later, removing the potentially offending videos from public view. Most of the time, if someone is putting up copy of copyrighted works, this is perfectly normal and we should all be glad that YouTube is helping to defend the rights of the owners of copyrighted works. But your use of a scene or two from your episode of a television show or a movie can be a temporary casualty of this war against piracy.
You aren’t the bad guy here. You’re a party to the production of the piece, and your use of the scenes you are in pass all four of the Copyright Act’s fair use tests (Section 119 of Title 17 of the US Code):
The purpose and character of your use of the copyrighted work must advance knowledge or the progress of arts, or be for non-profit or educational use. You are demonstrating your participation in the work, so this is covered.
The nature of the copied work must have certain values which are judged on a case by case basis, none of which you are even close to when using it in your performance demo.
The “amount and substantiality” of the work is clear – you’re only using a small amount of the work (since your demo should only be a minute or two long, you’ll need to use just seconds of the scene you’re in), and that passes the test that you’re not simply re-publishing the entire episode or film.
The final test is whether or not your use of a piece of the copyrighted content could negatively affect the work’s value in the marketplace. You pass this as you’re not selling or offering your demo as a replacement for any of the shows you use in it.
Thankfully, YouTube is also on your side in this case, and you can easily remedy the situation. remember the option above in the ominous letter that offers you the opportunity to “Dispute Claim”? That’s exactly what you do, dispute the claim. YouTube even offers you a simple like to click on to take you the “Dispute Claim” form on their website.
All you have to do when you get to that page is to fill out the form, and tell YouTube why you shouldn’t be subject to their takedown decision. Here’s some language you can copy and paste from this page right into the “Reason for Dispute” or “Dispute Explanation” text box on YouTube:
I am an actor. The video in question is a compilation of different scenes in which I am featured. This video does not violate US Copyright code, as it passes all four tests for fair use under Section 119 of Title 17 of the US Code. Please restore the video to public view. Thank you
You may never hear from YouTube on issues like this, especially if a human being intercepts the takedown notice to you and looks at your video. But now you know what to do should you be tapped for copyright infringement.
