Are AMVs Illegal?

[Sakaki Onsei]

I would say that under the fair use clause, as long as you don't take whole swatches of anime (such as a 5 minute continuous segment) and add music to it.

5 Seconds from one scene, 5 seconds from another scene, or 10 seconds...just as long as it's not totally continuous, and you should be fine.

[inuyasha89]

I would say that under the fair use clause, as long as you don't take whole swatches of anime (such as a 5 minute continuous segment) and add music to it.

5 Seconds from one scene, 5 seconds from another scene, or 10 seconds...just as long as it's not totally continuous, and you should be fine.

I'm not totally sure about that. I thought that the fair use clause only applied to things that you got over the internet. I could be wrong, but if that is the case then it would have to be 5,10,15 second clips that you found online. I'm probably wrong, because I remember talking about it in web design, so I probably just associate it with the internet. But i dont know.

[TriezGamer]

Fair use has existed far longer than the internet has been around.

@Sakaki -- You're missing out on the other major problem: The music. Using the entire song is hard to justify as fair use. Only short clip collections like AMV Hell are likely to get away on that one.

[Sanji07]

I've found some useful info on Youtube. First off, I *refound for the third time* their copyright tips. These can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/t/howto_copyright
A Few Guiding Principals is what disturbs me the most. Whereas here, it's a little more difficult to understand, but is a small hope for proof that at least some AMVs are not illegal: http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=83753&topic=13655

[blkmage]

AMVs are illegal. You've created a derivative work without the consent of the creator. Control of derivative works are one of the rights that are afforded to the copyright holder. Of course, that's not to say this is the way it should be. I like to encourage people to learn more about copyright law and to be active in raising awareness and trying to get things changed and such.

[Sanji07]

There's still something that confuses me. This site says that parodies are not illegal and can be made without permission from the copyright holder: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/

[Nate]

Parodies are indeed 100% legal, a protected form of expression. That's why Weird Al doesn't need to get permission to release an album of his songs (though he usually does ask first, just to be polite). The problem is AMVs can't really qualify as parody because rather than being a knockoff of a song/show, they ARE the actual song/show.

[termyt]

Yep, exactly. If you and your friends drew your own anime with copyrighted characters saying things they did not say in the original anime and played the music with altered chords or lyrics, then you could claim it is protected parody.

Weird Al also pays royalties to those who own the rights to the music.

[NuclearPeon]

While AMVs are technically illegal in all respects, I believe some anime creators, as well as many AMV producers, see the creation of anime music videos to be a promotional work for the original authors, of both music and video content.

A lot of anime and music I watched and listened to was found off AMVs. Therefore, while illegal, they are still doing some good for the copyright holders, provided people buy their stuff rather than just download it.

[Sanji07]

Same here. (It's hard finding flash parodies..)

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Fair use has existed far longer than the internet has been around.

@Sakaki -- You're missing out on the other major problem: The music. Using the entire song is hard to justify as fair use. Only short clip collections like AMV Hell are likely to get away on that one.

And as we all know, the music industry is far more active about copyright enforcement than the Anime industry

[Sanji07]

Say someone makes a flash parody with some copyrighted music in one clip. That would still be illegal right?

[Nate]

I think under fair use you can use small segments of music, maybe only a few seconds. I get this from an article I read about the song "Happy Birthday to You" which is actually copyrighted. This is why when restaurants celebrate a birthday they never sing the song, to avoid a lawsuit. Anyway the article says, "Oliver Stone's 1987 Wall Street was one of the rare films that played enough of the song to justify a royalty payment." The phrase "enough of the song" seems to imply that there's a limit on how much you can play before you're required to pay royalties.

[Sanji07]

I think under fair use you can use small segments of music, maybe only a few seconds. I get this from an article I read about the song "Happy Birthday to You" which is actually copyrighted. This is why when restaurants celebrate a birthday they never sing the song, to avoid a lawsuit. Anyway the article says, "Oliver Stone's 1987 Wall Street was one of the rare films that played enough of the song to justify a royalty payment." The phrase "enough of the song" seems to imply that there's a limit on how much you can play before you're required to pay royalties.

I see. What if you use small clips from an anime for a parody-would that go under 'fair use' or would it be considered illegal?

[TriezGamer]

If you're only using clips, then in theory, it should be fair use. Additionally, parody is protected. The questions are then:

How much is too much? It isn't defined clearly in the law and is basically up to the courts when a challenge is made.

What consitutes parody? Again, something that really isn't defined clearly.

[termyt]

"Fair Use" is a legal concept that depends on varying factors of usage that are not at all cut-and-dry. (And, as far as I know, only applies to the United States - if you live elsewhere, inquire about the legality of fair use in your country)

If an argument arises, it typically takes a judge and lawyers to sort it all out. In some cases, a few bars of music have been considered illegal while entire full length television programs have been considered fair use.

In general, the shorter the clip and the larger the source material, the more likely it will be considered fair use. A paragraph from a 2000 page novel is more likely to be considered fair use than 3 bars of a 2 minute song, for example. Nothing, however, is guaranteed to be considered fair use.