Important Survey On Fair Use Practices And Understanding

from the take-part dept

Elisa Kreisinger, an artist who makes strong use of fair use for remixing in her art, and refers to herself as a “pop culture pirate,” has put together a survey about how people use fair use. Since many of our readers here have experience with fair use, we urge you to take part in the survey. It’s especially targeted at creators who have to deal with fair use on a regular basis.

Remixers are not pirates or lawbreakers. We actually make some of the best (not to mention funniest and most entertaining) examples of Fair Use in action. But we need to know the law, our rights under it and assert these rights when needed.

We’re at a pivotal point in remix culture: artists and creators and makers have a working understanding of Fair Use; we talk about at conferences, on Twitter and of course on YouTube. But for all the talk, we’re still confused about how to use it and our Fair Use work is continually threatened by takedowns and copyright violations. As a result, when forced to defend or dispute the legality of our work, we often succumb to myths that favor the copyright holder over ourselves as creators. My Eyebeam/Public Knowledge installation, Fair Use(r), seeks to shed light on this dynamic through crowd sourcing data on artists experiences’ negotiating Fair Use in remix culture. Anyone can participate, starting today, right here.

As she notes, this is part of a new art project she’s working on, as an artist-in-residence for Eyebeam and Public Knowledge. The survey itself is only open for another day or so, so please take the time to fill it out and share your experiences with fair use.

Filed Under: , , , ,

Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “Important Survey On Fair Use Practices And Understanding”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
11 Comments
out_of_the_blue says:

Second-handers.

“creators who have to deal with fair use on a regular basis” — Here that means hacks who steal all they can get away with.

“often succumb to myths that favor the copyright holder over ourselves as creators” — Except those aren’t myths; they’re clearly derived from common law that might be expressed “I made it, therefore I own it; you do not”.

You’ll definitely fail if allying with people who state an abject dependence on others. Geez, people: the real creators want to see even a tiny spark from you, not have their own works mangled until sickening. Just do your own work as originally as you can.


If you’re against copyright, quit putting your name on posts! You don’t own the idea!

12:37:48[n-370-3]

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Second-handers.

“they’re clearly derived from common law that might be expressed “I made it, therefore I own it; you do not”.”

and it’s been proven time and again that copyright is not derived from common law. the sweat of the brow argument has been repeatedly rejected.

” If you’re against copyright, quit putting your name on posts! You don’t own the idea!”

copyright and attribution are separate issues dunce

Ninja (profile) says:

Fair use shouldn’t be mere defense. It should be the first line of action and if a copyright holder wants to take something down the person that created it should be able to block the attempt before anything is taken down. If the content owner still wants to test if it is fair use it should go to the courts. You know, due process, no censorship.

Hopefully we’ll reach that stage at some point.

Add Your Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Ctrl-Alt-Speech

A weekly news podcast from
Mike Masnick & Ben Whitelaw

Subscribe now to Ctrl-Alt-Speech »
Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...