2. What is the main problem
journalists have
with copyright law?
3. ☐ It doesn’t protect authors
enough
It protects authors too
much
☐
☐ I have no idea
4. FAIR USEThe right to reuse
appropriate amounts
of existing work for
a new purpose.
FAIR USE
5. As we found in our study, fair use is baked into newsroom practice
across the country. But when journalists have to consciously
exercise their rights—in newer media to them (such as
audio, video and web media) and on newer digital platforms—
they often hesitate.
6. When people hesitate, they delay
and reconsider; sometimes they
don’t even attempt possible
projects.
8. We realized that copyright
for journalists was a First
Amendment issue.
9. That is because journalists face a
world that is almost—with very few
exceptions—entirely copyrighted. In
order to refer to the existing
world, they have to access
copyrighted works.
10. Copyright
monopoly rights
lock up that
work, unless you
get permission to
use it. That turns
copyright holders
into private
censors.
11. FAIR USE
How does the government that gave us the First Amendment get away with
authorizing a monopoly that produces censorship?
By creating an exception to that monopoly through fair use.
12. Supreme Court
Fair use protects
freedom of
expression
The Supreme Court has said twice in
the last decade, in Golan and
Eldred, that copyright is
constitutional because fair use
exists.
13. So if that’s true, why are journalists
often so fearful of employing fair use?
14. These organizations all vigorously employ
fair use every day. What do they know
that makes them so confident?
15. JUDGES
They know that judges are very fair use
friendly, and they know how judges
currently reason about fair use.
16. Judges consider three big questions. These questions
rebundle the infamous “four factors” that are
mentioned in the law.
1. Transformativeness
2. Appropriateness
3. Professional Standards
20. If people in a professional field could get
together and determine what their consensus
was around their professional employment of
fair use, this would lower risk. It would vastly
reduce the ambiguity around what is
appropriate, what is in the center of acceptable
professional practice.
22. All of these professional communities shared a
common trait with journalists: they were all
inadvertently and often unknowingly self-
censoring, through doubt and hesitation. By not
using all their rights, they were limiting not only
their current work but their own future—by
foregoing innovation.
23. The reason why large copyright holders don’t
challenge them is the same reason that professionals,
all of them copyright holders, felt free to create them:
because fair use doesn’t impair the rights of copyright
holders.
24. JOURNALIST
S
SET OF PRINCIPLES IN
FAIR USE FOR
JOURNALISM
JUNE 20 13
centerforsocialmedia.org/journalism
pijip-impact.org/fairuse/journalism
Most recently, journalists
have also created such a
document, in their Set of
Principles in Fair Use for
Journalism.
25. This document was created with the help of locals of
the Society of Professional Journalists and the Online
News Association, and resulted from 17 meetings in
10 cities across the country.
26. Endorsers So Far
• Association for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication
• Association of Alternative Newsmedia
• Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass
Communication
• J-Lab
• MediaShift
• National Association of Black Journalists,
Digital Journalism Task Force
• New America Media
• Poynter Institute
• Robert R. McCormick Foundation
• National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association
27. Seven situations in which journalists asserted their fair use
rights
• Incidental Capture
• Proof
• Cultural Journalism
• Illustration
• Historical Reference
• Fostering Public Discussion
• Advancing the Story
29. SET OF PRINCIPLES IN
FAIR USE FOR
JOURNALISM
JUNE 20 13
centerforsocialmedia.org/journalism
pijip-impact.org/fairuse/journalism
Please use and share the Principles.
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/journalism
30. In closing…
What is the best way
for copyright to enable
the future of journalism?
Here’s a poll to start your day—what’s the worst problem journalists have with copyright law today? Sadly, we learned in research we did at American University that journalists are shortchanging themselves because they do not know all their rights under copyright law.
In particular, they do not understand how best to use fair use, although ironically they often use this right every day without knowing it.
As we found in our study, fair use is baked into newsroom practice across the country. But when journalists have to consciously exercise their rights—in newer media to them (such as audio, video and web media) and on newer digital platforms—they often hesitate.
When people hesitate, they delay and reconsider; sometimes they don’t even attempt possible projects.
In fact, they are regularly self-censoring.
We realized that copyright for journalists was a First Amendment issue.
That is because journalists face a world that is almost—with very few exceptions—entirely copyrighted. In order to refer to the existing world, they have to access copyrighted works.
Copyright monopoly rights lock up that work, unless you get permission to use it. That turns copyright holders into private censors.
How does the government that gave us the First Amendment get away with authorizing a monopoly that produces censorship? By creating an exception to that monopoly through fair use.
The Supreme Court has said twice in the last decade, in Golan and Eldred, that copyright is constitutional because fair use exists.
So if that’s true, why are journalists often so fearful of employing fair use? After all, journalists love the First Amendment. They aren’t irrational. They are understandably confused by the vagueness of a law that says, Go ahead and use copyrighted work without permission if you’re using it to generate more culture—oh, and just think about at least four factors but maybe other stuff too. Oh and by the way, there are big fines if you guess wrong.
They know that judges are very fair use friendly, and they know how judges currently reason about fair use.
Judges consider three big questions. These questionsrebundle the infamous “four factors” that are mentioned in the law. The first is transformativeness.
The second question is the amount or kind of the use. Did you use what you needed for that new purpose? Like Goldilocks, not too much and not too little—just enough. And just enough might be 100 percent of something, but it might not be 100 percent at a high resolution, unless you really need that for the new purpose.
Finally, judges ask what are the standards of the professional community? If people in a professional field could get together and determine what their consensus was around their professional employment of fair use, this would lower risk. It would vastly reduce the ambiguity around what is appropriate, what is in the center of acceptable professional practice. This is an insight that we are indebted to a group of legal scholars for understanding.
This third question, what are professional customs and standards, led to my fellow researcher Peter Jaszi’s great insight. If people in a professional field could get together and determine what their consensus was around their professional employment of fair use, this would lower risk. It would vastly reduce the ambiguity around what is appropriate, what is in the center of acceptable professional practice. The first professional community to create such standards was documentary filmmakers, who used it successfully to lower their insurance rates and to get better insurance. Others soon followed.
All of these professional communities shared a common trait with journalists: they were all inadvertently and often unknowingly self-censoring, through doubt and hesitation. By not using all their rights, they were limiting not only their current work but their own future—by foregoing innovation. After they created codes, though, they were able to get their work done more efficiently. Filmmakers made films more quickly and with lower budgets, poets were able to publish more easily, scholars were able to circulate their research.
Now for the breaking news: Journalists have also created such a document, in their Set of Principles in Fair Use for Journalism.
This document was created with the help of locals of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Online News Association, and resulted from 17 meetings in 10 cities across the country.
Here are the six situations in which journalists asserted their fair use rights. The Principles themselves are at centerforsocialmedia.org/journalism.
Here are the six situations in which journalists asserted their fair use rights. The Principles themselves are at centerforsocialmedia.org/journalism.
I hope you’re feeling a sense of relief! This document dramatically lowers your risk. Now you know what the professional consensus of your field is about acceptable fair use, and that means so would a judge and of course anyone who would challenge you. It also empowers you to challenge someone who is infringing on your own work rather than employing fair use.
Please use and share the Principles.
A final poll before we leave: Which of these options do you think is the best way for copyright to enable the future of journalism? The Supreme Court wants you to choose the last one, and so does the Poynter Institute, and so do I.
At the Center for Social Media, we’d love to share your stories about how you’re employing fair use.