Introduction
0.4 A Note about Copyright and Fair Use
As you have seen and heard, there are many videos in Transfer across Media that deliver content and analysis along with the prose. Some of this video work is composed and created by me using my own materials along with media from the public domain or licensed under Creative Commons. The majority of the videos in Transfer across Media, though, utilize the images and voices of study participants. To protect participants, I ask that the videos not be edited or remixed. If you desire to make modifications to videos that include the images or voices of participants, please seek my permission. This way, all of us can work together to treat the study participants ethically and represent them in ways consistent with my understandings of the data and their experiences.
There is some video material and media in Transfer across Media that I did not compose. These segments are found within student videos I show, play, and cite. While some of this material within the student-authored videos is under copyright (for example, popular songs such as Demi Lovato's “Old Ways” and Junkie XL’s “Maximum Effort” from the Official Deadpool soundtrack, copyrighted images found via Google, and more), all the copyrighted material I display is used under fair use principles.
The four factors judges consider when resolving fair use disputes include 1) the purpose and character of the use, 2) the nature of the copyrighted work, 3) the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and 4) the effect of the use upon the potential market (Stanford University Libraries). Regarding the purpose and character of the use, the copyrighted material in student videos included in Transfer across Media is used to transform the work, to create something new. For example, when popular songs are used, they are combined with other visual, textual, and aural material, creating a new whole with new meanings.
Regarding the nature of the copyrighted work, while the copyrighted material in Transfer across Media often draws on creative work such as art, music, or films, which opposes fair use principles, these materials are taken from published works, which favors fair use. Regarding the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, some of the copyrighted material used comprises only a small portion of the overall work: a student uses an excerpt from a song, for example, and not the entire track. One exception is Evan Kennedy’s use of Demi Lovato’s song “Old Ways,” featured in Chapter 5. Evan uses Lovato’s entire song in his video composition and drafts, and I address how this use is still most likely fair as I present his work.
Finally, regarding the effect of the use on the potential market, the student videos shown and heard in this eBook do not deprive the copyright owners of income, nor do they undermine new markets for the copyrighted work. If anything, the fact that some students used copyrighted images and songs in their work and I have republished them here provides more publicity to copyright holders, increasing the potential for exposure to new audiences, customers, and users.