{"id":34068,"date":"2021-12-16T02:10:53","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T02:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/?p=34068"},"modified":"2024-01-19T14:00:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T14:00:39","slug":"how-not-to-let-copyright-fck-up-your-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/how-not-to-let-copyright-fck-up-your-career\/","title":{"rendered":"How not to let copyright f*ck up your career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whether you&#8217;re a musician, a filmmaker, or any kind of creative, you need to take copyright seriously or it will bite you in the ass.<\/p>\n<p>I know it&#8217;s possibly the last thing you want to think about because you&#8217;re too focused on finishing your work but trust me, you&#8217;re going to regret it if you won&#8217;t take this seriously!<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re a generally relaxed person who thinks life is all peaches, try to cultivate a more paranoid kind of thinking when it comes to copyright because you could really go to hell for it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_83 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-light-blue ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3dd9bd55b33\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3dd9bd55b33\"  aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/how-not-to-let-copyright-fck-up-your-career\/#if-you-feel-like-you-can-get-away-with-using-other-peoples-works-think-this-way\" >IF YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH USING OTHER PEOPLE&#8217;S WORKS, THINK THIS WAY:<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/how-not-to-let-copyright-fck-up-your-career\/#1-assume-everything-is-copyrighted\" >#1. Assume everything is copyrighted<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/how-not-to-let-copyright-fck-up-your-career\/#2-assume-theyll-hunt-you-down\" >#2. Assume they&#8217;ll hunt you down<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/how-not-to-let-copyright-fck-up-your-career\/#3-%e2%80%9cfair-use%e2%80%9d-cant-save-you\" >#3 &#8220;Fair Use&#8221; can&#8217;t save you<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"if-you-feel-like-you-can-get-away-with-using-other-peoples-works-think-this-way\"><\/span><strong>IF YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH USING OTHER PEOPLE&#8217;S WORKS, THINK THIS WAY:<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1-assume-everything-is-copyrighted\"><\/span><strong>#1. Assume everything is copyrighted<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The idea behind copyright is that someone did some creative work, and therefore gets to own it.<\/p>\n<p>This of course applies to movies and music, but also all other kinds of creativity: Books, pictures, drawings, viral videos, Reddit posts, and yes, video games.<\/p>\n<p>All of these things are protected by copyright, and in order to legally use them, you must ask the copyright holder for permission.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2-assume-theyll-hunt-you-down\"><\/span><strong>#2. Assume they&#8217;ll hunt you down<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;s tempting to just shrug and pray that you won&#8217;t get caught. After all, everyone else is doing it, right?<\/p>\n<p>But just using 2 seconds of someone else&#8217;s work could get you to court like the case of <a href=\"https:\/\/legal-patent.com\/international-intellectual-property\/music-sampling-metal-on-metal-goes-back-to-the-olg\/\">Metall auf Metall.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And if you&#8217;re planning to release or publish anything with any media that you didn&#8217;t ask permission for, well&#8230;DON&#8217;T!<\/p>\n<p>You could be fined a ridiculous amount and you&#8217;ll not only lose your career, but your everything!<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3-%e2%80%9cfair-use%e2%80%9d-cant-save-you\"><\/span><strong>#3 &#8220;Fair Use&#8221; can&#8217;t save you<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM\"><strong class=\"_12FoOEddL7j_RgMQN0SNeU\">Fair use is very strict and narrow in scope<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM\">You can&#8217;t just write &#8220;no copyright intended&#8221; or &#8220;this video is fair use&#8221; in your description, that doesn&#8217;t help you at all. Fair use is defined by <a class=\"_3t5uN8xUmg0TOwRCOGQEcU\" href=\"https:\/\/fairuse.stanford.edu\/overview\/fair-use\/four-factors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow ugc\">four factors<\/a>, which a judge will try to apply to your content if you use something someone else made.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM\">And that&#8217;s precisely where the problem is: You need to go to court for that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM\">And even one court says that your videos are fine, the court higher up can completely revert the decision, as happened to Ray William Johnson, once the most-subscribed YouTuber.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM\">He had a series where he was commenting on\/reacting to viral videos, and even though the first court ruled 18\/19 of his videos to be fair use, the jury in the second court deemed 40\/40 videos to be <strong class=\"_12FoOEddL7j_RgMQN0SNeU\">not<\/strong>\u00a0fair use, forcing Johnson to settle.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BOTTOMLINE:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you care about your career and your finances,\u00a0make sure you\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/Copyright-a-Song-for-Free#:~:text=Your%20copyright%20is%20free%20and,action%20to%20have%20this%20copyright.\"><strong>register for a copyright<\/strong><\/a> for your work and that you&#8217;ve obtained a <a href=\"https:\/\/biteable.com\/blog\/get-permission-use-song\/\"><strong>copyright clearance<\/strong><\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>____________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p><b><i>James Hill<\/i><\/b><i>\u00a0is a veteran of the music industry. He first worked at Warner Reprise Records then later joined Interscope\/ Geffen Records where he managed producers and songwriters and got his first platinum record for Keyshia Cole\u2019s The Way It Is. He is now helping indie artists with branding and manufacturing through his company\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer follow\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\"><span class=\"s1\"><b><i>Unified Manufacturing<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a><i>, a CD\/DVD,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/vinyl-pressing\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer follow\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">custom vinyl records<\/a>\u00a0and merch company in LA.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether you&#8217;re a musician, a filmmaker, or any kind of creative, you need to take copyright seriously or it will bite you in the ass. I know it&#8217;s possibly the last thing you want to think about because you&#8217;re too focused on finishing your work but trust me, you&#8217;re going to regret it if you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-distribution-news","category-music-distribution-news","category-musicmakers-filmmakers"],"contentshake_article_id":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34068"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38857,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34068\/revisions\/38857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}