Websites and Logos

[liampadams]

Hi, i have a question about copyright. In videos are you allowed to show websites and things such as social media logos (such as the twitter logo for example) or does this fall under copyright? I am also planning on monetising my videos in the future if that makes any difference.

 

[Crystal_Joy]

It depends on your video. If you feature a website in order to talk about the company itself or what the site has to offer, then it would fall under fair use and you can monetize your video. Same goes for referring to a social media site and their logos. If you want to use a site or a logo for creative purposes without directly speaking about the site itself and without the owners permission, it would fall under copyright.

 

[Tarmack]

It depends on your video. If you feature a website in order to talk about the company itself or what the site has to offer, then it would fall under fair use and you can monetize your video. Same goes for referring to a social media site and their logos. If you want to use a site or a logo for creative purposes without directly speaking about the site itself and without the owners permission, it would fall under copyright.

Just to correct some terminology, because it is important. There is no "fair use" on one side and "copyright" on the other. Everything people create is applicable to copyright law. If you hum a tune that hasn't been hummed before, you instantly own a copyright on that tune. Protecting that copyright is another matter, which is often done through registering it as a way to prove that you created it first.

However, copyright is intended to be used in the case of a production of some kind. A logo on the other hand is a trademark. The general rule of thumb about using trademarks is that you must make certain that under no circumstances can the viewer be under the impression that you own the trademark or are operating officially as part of the company. So, you can put that Twitter bird in your video, so long as you're not making a video that appears to be an official Twitter video.

This is where trademarks and copyright differ. It's not really the same as a fair use commentary defense. For example, Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr etc. You can freely use these logos to link back to your various social media pages. Your video doesn't have to be commenting on the social media companies in order to do this. Just make sure that your video is very clearly not aimed at sound like you're an official company source and you will be fine.