Legality of film analysis

jm100588

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Im in the process of beginning a channel on film analysis and am wondering what is legal as far as using the film as background to my voice. There are several channels that do this and I assume this falls under the educational purposes? I would also like to allow some scenes to run to prove a point and am wondering what the legality of that is as well.

Thanks
 

Shakycow

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Legality doesn't matter here.

There's a good chance that, as soon as you post video or audio from a movie, Content ID will flag it as copyrighted material. The movie studio will put a claim on it, they will display ads on your video, they will collect 100% of all income earned from said ads, and you will be blocked from monetizing your channel.
 

Acerthorn

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Don't listen to shakycow. He doesn't know what he's talking about.

Will the film creators most likely post a copyright claim? Sure. But that's where the accuracy of his statements end. We have to remember that content ID is automatic, and as such, physically cannot take fair use into account, even if the rightsholders wanted to. But that doesn't mean you're just S.O.L.

You can dispute the copyright claim, claiming that it is fair use. 99% of the time, the claimant will either release their claim or let the 30 days expire, at which point, their claim is released automatically.

For example, I recently uploaded a video where I compared The Wizard of Oz to the 2015 video game Fallout 4. When I uploaded it, Warner Bros. put a copyright claim on it. I disputed that copyright claim, and Warner Bros. did the right thing and released the copyright claim less than 12 hours after they originally put the copyright claim on (before the video was even scheduled to go public).

I'll attach three screenshots to prove it.

Now, for the 1% of rightsholders who will maintain their copyright claim on your video, you can appeal the copyright claim. Youtube's own employees actually have a video where they explain how this process works:

Youtube doesn't decide anything regarding copyright or fair use. They only do as they're told when the DMCA takedown notice and counter-notice get filed.

However, companies can be sued for damages if they issue a takedown notice for a video without conducting a fair use analysis beforehand: https://www.gerbenlaw.com/blog/false-dmca-takedown-notices-ninth-circuit-holds-that-copyright-owners-must-consider-fair-use-before-issuing-take-down-notices/

Now, that's only in the 9th Circuit. However, the 9th Circuit includes the State of California, where a majority of film studios are headquartered. So 99.999999% of the movies you may end up reviewing on your channel are covered by this law.
 

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