Mashup videos are increasingly popular online. When the mashup creators remix two or more videos or music from various sources e.g. TV, film, music etc., they may not be aware of the copyright of the original source. Without the permission of copyright owner, mashup video artists may violate the copyright law and charged by criminal copyright infringement. If they violate the law, their videos will be forced to take down on YouTube. YouTube can ban their accounts and they are forbidden to post anything online. In a more serious case, the copyright owners reserve their rights to sue the mashup artists and they may have a maximum punishment of five years in jail and large fines. It is an obstacle that hinders mashup artists to develop mashup video more. The original copyright law is written in 1980s or even earlier and it did not include the possibilities of copyright infringement exist in digital era. Therefore, mashup artists and public suggests a reform of copyright law regarding on remix culture and mashup videos in order to give more freedom for mashup artists to create their work.
United States In the United States, the Copyright Act of 1976 acts as the basis of copyright law to protect the rights of the original creators. It protects the original works of authorship. To some extent, it allows artists to reproduce the work and create derivative works of the original work. Fair use is a limitation and exception to the copyright law. According to the
Hofstra Law Review, “If mashup artists could prove that they use others’ songs or clips to criticize, comment, or teach, then mashup artists might be able to use the copyrighted material without authorization." Courts in the United States balance four factors when considering fair use: • Purpose and character of the use (including: commercial nature, non-profit education purposes) • Nature of the copyrighted work • Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole • Effect of the use upon the potential market or value of the copyrighted work In 2012, video mashup artist
Jonathan McIntosh spoke before the
United States Copyright Office to advocate for exemptions to the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The
final rulemaking stated an exemption for: "Motion pictures (including television shows and videos), as defined in 17 U.S.C. 101, where circumvention is undertaken solely in order to make use of short portions of the motion pictures for the purpose of criticism or comment in limited instances."
United Kingdom Starting from Wednesday 1 October 2014, the new EU law becomes effective in the United Kingdom. There is an amendment to the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. It is now legal for people to use “limited amount” of copyrighted material in online video for the purposes of “parody, caricature or pastiche” without the consent of the copyright holder, only if their work do not convey a discriminatory message, or compete with the original. A judge will decide whether the video is funny enough to classify as a parody and if it violates the law. Although the mashup video is now legal in practice, it does not affect YouTube's terms of service. ==See also==