Copyright and Intellectual Property

Showing Clips or Excerpts

Using clips or excerpts from films, videos, or TV programs for teaching purposes is allowed in the classroom and in online education. 

Showing clips or excerpts of films outside of teaching you will need to consider if your use is a fair use and apply the four factors to the number and amount of video clips being used.

According to Copyright Law for Librarians and Educators: Creative Strategies & Practical Solutions (3rd ed.) by Kenneth D. Crews, some of the points that those teaching should consider (pp. 74-75) include--

• The nature of the work: Is it a feature film or an educational video? Is the film marketed for education? Is the work creative or simple, in the latter case consisting of news events or explanations?
• The amount of the work: How long are the clips? Are they brief? Do they constitute the "heart of the work," i.e., the main point or thrust of the work? Does the length of the original video matter when considering how much to use?
• The effect of the use on the marketplace for the video: Is the film or video readily available for purchase by students at a reasonable price? Is it a foreign film that is not easily findable, affordable, or usable (for example, a DVD with a non-North American region code)? Is it an educational film or a general, commercial work? Does the library or the university own a copy of the work (and thus has contributed to the market for the work)?

You can find out more about fair use, including online resources to help you make a fair use defense for your use, by visiting the University Library System's "What Is Fair Use?" portion of this guide.

Adapted from "Copyright and Intellectual Property Toolkit" by University of Pittsburg Library System licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.