[NEohioPAL] Best Practices in Online Video

[Ansley Valentine]

I read this article today, and thought I would share it with the list.
You can find out more information at http://centerforsocialmedia.org

The Chronicle of Higher Education  Information Technology

http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i46/46a00801.htm

>From the issue dated July 25, 2008
LINKED IN WITH...
Pat Aufderheide, who led the creation of a guide to the legal rights of
people, such as professors and students, who make Web videos.
Best Practices in Online Video

By JEFFREY R. YOUNG

U.S. law is more lenient about the reuse of short clips from Hollywood
films and other copyrighted works than many people realize, argues Ms.
Aufderheide, director of the Center for Social Media at American
University. That's because fair-use provisions allow such excerpts in
many cases, she says. So professors who integrate these short clips into
lecture videos and students who make spoofs for YouTube are probably not
breaking the law, she says. The guide, "Code of Best Practices in Fair
Use for Online Video," is available free
(http://centerforsocialmedia.org).

Q. Why do professors need to know about the legality of making parody
videos or mash-ups on YouTube?

A. Video is being used in instruction for a variety of reasons. Students
like to make videos for their assignments. Or professors might be head
of a club or association where video is being used, and they need to
know what are the terms. And they sometimes make this material for their
own instructional reasons.

Q. What is the most important takeaway from your best-practices guide?

A. There's a large number of uses that people think are illegal that are
legal on the Internet in terms of online video. The emerging culture
really uses quotes from existing culture very creatively and extensively
and in ways that were technically impossible in the past. Therefore this
new culture needs an understanding of what fair use is within the law in
order to grow.

Q. Isn't it still difficult, even with these best practices, to know
whether a video you're making for a class that uses a Disney clip is
legal?

A. There's no guarantee that you will be absolutely safe. Any time you
give a speech at a conference, you are not guaranteed that you are using
your free-speech rights correctly, but you kind of know what's
acceptable because you've been there before. What the codes of best
practice do is create a comfort level by telling you what other people
already think is normal for video. We are in a situation where we have
to recover fair-use rights. Large content companies have worked hard and
spent a lot of money to help people forget and to scare people into
believing that they don't have that right.

Q. What's the next project you're working on?

A. In November we're going to release a code of best practices for
people who use copyrighted material in their teaching — English
teachers, humanities, history — and who do use media and journalism and
film and video.
http://chronicle.com
Section: Information Technology
Volume 54, Issue 46, Page A8
Copyright © 2008 by The Chronicle of Higher Education



Ansley Valentine
Associate Professor
Co-Vice Chair, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Region
III
College of Wooster Film Studies Program Chair

The College of Wooster
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