As content creators, most of us love 💖 the copyright doctrine of fair use.
In case you’re unfamiliar, this doctrine allows content creators like us to use copyrighted material on our social media pages without facing infringement charges.
Fair use claims that by transforming 🌀 a piece of content with commentary 💬, critique, satire, or another strategy, content creators can make that material their own, and therefore own the rights to it.
While fair use has allowed for social media trends like livestream gameplay 🎮, remixes, mashups 🎼, and reaction 😯 videos, it has also had some detrimental effects on copyright holders.
Why do we have fair use 🤔?
Tech companies like @google and @youtube fight ⚔️ for the doctrine of fair use because it legalizes a large portion of the content on their platforms.
Without the protection 🛡️ granted by fair use, YouTubers, Instagrammers, and all other influencers would have a difficult time creating totally original content 100% of the time, and the digital world as we know it would hardly exist.
The scary 👻 truth about fair use
While fair use has made life easier for influencers and content creators, it has created a nightmare for record 🎙️ labels, publishers 📚, and Hollywood ✨ producers.
In reality, it often doesn’t take much to be “fair”; as a result, a ton of copyrighted content is being accessed for free online 🌐.
We’ve all seen bootlegged movies 🎞️, Broadway shows, and music albums 💿 on fair use law YouTube, some of which are posted unaltered to the site!
This abuse is usually a result of the lack of time constraints ⌛ outlined in the fair use doctrine, which legalizes any use of content that does not include the entirety of the material.
While lawyers and legal advisors usually recommend re-using no more than thirty seconds ⏱️ of an existing song or video, there is technically no legal limit to how much content one can use.
Therefore, the dangerous truth about fair use? It could be doing more harm than good 😱.