Can I get flagged for posting Screenshots of Movies?

Seage

Seage

Well-Known Member
Hey all. I'm planning on doing a little series, and at the beginning of the series, I wanted to show a screenshot from the film I would be talking about. For only about 3- 5 seconds. Then the rest of the video would be hand drawn and whatnot. Would that fall within fair use? I know that you are able to use footage and photos when doing reviews... from what i've heard, but these wont exactly be reviews.

I tried google first but didn't find much, I think I may have just typed my question wrong. Hoping someone here could help me. Thank you!

Seage~
 
Seage said:
Hey all. I'm planning on doing a little series, and at the beginning of the series, I wanted to show a screenshot from the film I would be talking about. For only about 3- 5 seconds. Then the rest of the video would be hand drawn and whatnot. Would that fall within fair use? I know that you are able to use footage and photos when doing reviews... from what i've heard, but these wont exactly be reviews.

I tried google first but didn't find much, I think I may have just typed my question wrong. Hoping someone here could help me. Thank you!

Seage~
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I don't think so, would you monetize the video and make money of it? If so then yes, probably.
 
Hmm. I would be monetizing. I figure if its not legal, id just repaint the scene myself
 
TheEpicmanLives12 said:
I don't think so, would you monetize the video and make money of it? If so then yes, probably.
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Copyright advice where you're just guessing is potentially dangerous.

Seage said:
Hmm. I would be monetizing. I figure if its not legal, id just repaint the scene myself
Click to expand...

Become more familiar with the concept of Fair Use. Nothing in fair use will ever mention the use of a still image on YouTube though, so you need to just read up on what Fair Use is all about. Wikipedia is a decent resource, but I'd also suggest some of the Stanford links as well. The short answer to your query is that 3-5 seconds of showing just a still image is unlikely to be an issue. You are using what is merely a reference to the copyrighted material in order to create a new piece of media. It's also worth noting from the technical side that YouTube isn't going to match a single still like that to an existing copyrighted work.

Now, all that said, Fair Use doesn't really apply to YouTube. Fair Use is a legal defense in court. YouTube can take content down for any reason at any time, just like any private company on a private service. They tend to go for the usual Fair Use definitions, but until a judge rules on a specific case, there's no way to truely know how it would pan out.
 
Tarmack said:
Copyright advice where you're just guessing is potentially dangerous.



Become more familiar with the concept of Fair Use. Nothing in fair use will ever mention the use of a still image on YouTube though, so you need to just read up on what Fair Use is all about. Wikipedia is a decent resource, but I'd also suggest some of the Stanford links as well. The short answer to your query is that 3-5 seconds of showing just a still image is unlikely to be an issue. You are using what is merely a reference to the copyrighted material in order to create a new piece of media. It's also worth noting from the technical side that YouTube isn't going to match a single still like that to an existing copyrighted work.

Now, all that said, Fair Use doesn't really apply to YouTube. Fair Use is a legal defense in court. YouTube can take content down for any reason at any time, just like any private company on a private service. They tend to go for the usual Fair Use definitions, but until a judge rules on a specific case, there's no way to truely know how it would pan out.
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Thank you very much for your informative answer. I will do more research on the topic. I've never used an image that I didn't create myself in a video, so I really didn't know. And I don't know what a screenshot would fall under. But yes, I'll read up on this to cover myself. Thanks again!
 
Seage said:
Thank you very much for your informative answer. I will do more research on the topic. I've never used an image that I didn't create myself in a video, so I really didn't know. And I don't know what a screenshot would fall under. But yes, I'll read up on this to cover myself. Thanks again!
Click to expand...

The reason that Fair Use doesn't stipulate format directly is because it's more of a "spirit" legal defense than it is a rigid one. A 3-5 second screenshot could contribute as much or as little as a 3-5 second video clip, or a 3-5 second piece of a song. It is very hard for a copyright owner to win a case against fair use for example if in a complex 10 minute long production contains a 3 second piece of copyrighted works but if that same 3 second piece takes up almost half of a vine, that could be a different story. However, you'll note that the YouTube ContentID system can and often does flag entire videos earnings for a content owner in these cases despite having no legal grounds to do so, but that's because it is designed as a shoot first don't ask questions later program. Screenshots on the other hand are harder to match and if you make some minor modifications to the screenshot, perhaps making the screenshot a smaller portion of the overall video screen for those 3-5 seconds, or maybe tilting it in Photoshop slightly if you were planning to be on camera ala a news broadcast style, it becomes even less likely.

Obviously it will depend on what exactly you're doing, but at the end of the day if you feel that you have a good fair use situation, it's still often best to ensure that you don't get hit by ContentID anyways as sometimes you don't win that battle even if you're right.
 
I still do, because well, I'm sorry, but if I'm going to review or discuss a movie I need to at the very least show a screenshot or two from the movie in question. Description and imagination only go so far and since I'm not even gonna bother showing trailers or movie scenes (that's just stupid) I might as well show some pics.

It's just common sense. If you are to review something, you should at least to show a little bit of the subject in question even if it's just for a few seconds.
 
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