Copyright question

[wolseley]

Interesting one for you...

If I were to make a 3-5 second animated gif using scenes from a film, to share on the web, what would be the copyright implications?

The gifs would not be full res, would not contain sound and would be very short. I know that most copyright laws include some form of 'fair use' clause, but how far does this go?

 

[Zefan]

I doubt very much whether there would be any sort of action able to be taken against you, even if it was quite a long clip. Unless you're making money from it they definitely will not care.

 

[ArmyofHarmony]

nobody would know you created it

 

[wolseley]

Maybe I should give a little more information. I run an image hosting site, and one of the users has asked if they can upload animated gifs which they have made from movies on the TV, for use on forums. I am a little concerned as to where I stand if I tell this person that I will host them.

 

[Mic]

Im positive no one would give a damn.
And if they did, theyd just tell you to take them down or face court action. In that case....just take them down.

 

[zain]

If your company makes money, it would be wise not to let them host it on your forums. Even so, I doubt using a clip will make a the owners of matrix come after you or anything but its good to be on the safe side...

 

[SourChipmunk]

Im positive no one would give a damn.
And if they did, theyd just tell you to take them down or face court action. In that case....just take them down.

Spot on.

If in doubt, check out the Filmwise forums. Everyone's got an animated GIF of some sort there. The only time I've seen the request was with a music video for Outkast done with the Peanut's Christmas Special. Quite clever, but United Syndicate made them take it down.

 

[Sequoia]

I agree with the general concensus.

A. It's copyright infringement

B. It's unlikely anyone will care, or if they do, will do more than ask you to remove them.



But be aware, some companies (like Disney) can be funny about things like this. It could be more the context in which things were done that would be an problem than whether there's any commercial aspect to this. If they felt the context was offensive, derogatory or disparaging of Disney, or if it appeared to endorse a company or product, etc, then a legal snottygram wouldn't surprise me.

 

[The_KiD]

just put a not in your ToC's on your site saying something similar "users are responsible for uploaded content and copyright infringements pertaining to such content. Neither XYZ site nor it's staff are responsible for any copyright infringement based on user content"

 

[Sequoia]

just put a not in your ToC's on your site saying something similar "users are responsible for uploaded content and copyright infringements pertaining to such content. Neither XYZ site nor it's staff are responsible for any copyright infringement based on user content"

That has absolutely no effect on your legal liability, nor on a large company's ability to give you serious legal headaches over copyright, if they so choose.