Reply To YouTube’s Copyright School

This is the winning entry for Public Knowledge's video contest to create a response to YouTube's new "copyright school" video.

While YouTube's video is generally informative about copyright law and user generated video, it falls short when it comes to its description of fair use, an exception to copyright protection that allows you to incorporate copyrighted content into your videos without the permission of the copyright holder. This video describes fair use in an easy-to-understand way, and shows that rather than being a bunch of complicated legalize that ordinary YouTube users could never understand, fair use is a simple principle that you can use as a weapon to fight abusive takedown notices and get your videos restored when they are blocked for copyright infringement.

Note that this video is NOT legal advice, and fair use law is still very nebulous and uncertain--hence my frequent use of the word "probably." While the chances of being sued for filing a counter-notice are low, it should not be done lightly, and you assume any risk that results from taking such action.

For more information on copyright, fair use, and YouTube, please visit my website, Fair Use Tube, which features a detailed tutorial on how to dispute copyright blocks both under YouTube's automated Content ID system and with a DMCA counter-notice.

Also visit Public Knowledge's website, at Public Knowledge.