The Center for Social Media, has published a set of guidelines relating to fair-use practices and online video.
Is your mash-up, re-edit, or montage of 80’s TV shows legal? What rights do you have in using copyrighted material in your own works? Is some giant media conglomerate going to come after me?
The lawyers and scholars at the CSM have tread the murky waters of fair use, and come up with a set of guiding principals to “keep on the windy side of the law” (Quoting Shakespeare is public domain for example). This is a companion piece to their very thorough Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, which is also worth a read.
