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NEWS: NPR Covers Anime Music Videos, Otakon's Iron Editor

Unless you are selling AMVs for money, I would assume they fall under Fair Use.

The Ramblin' Wreck wrote:

Unless you are selling AMVs for money, I would assume they fall under Fair Use.

Unfortunately, a lot of people like to think that but it isn't entirely true, even though I really wish it was. Legally, the term Fair Use is documented as "the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair,” such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." None of which AMV's fall under.

So even though anime companies don't mind AMV's cause it's like a free trailer for their series, music companies see them as blatant piracy of their music and can sue you if they so decide to. So far this has been avoided, though several music companies have contacted a popular AMV site and requested that all videos with their artists be removed unless the site wanted to face a lawsuit.

Kiyoko wrote:

The Ramblin' Wreck wrote: Unless you are selling AMVs for money, I would assume they fall under Fair Use. Unfortunately, a lot of people like to think that but it isn't entirely true, even though I really wish it was. Legally, the term Fair Use is documented as "the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair,” such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." None of which AMV's fall under. So even though anime companies don't mind AMV's cause it's like a free trailer for their series, music companies see them as blatant piracy of their music and can sue you if they so decide to. So far this has been avoided, though several music companies have contacted a popular AMV site and requested that all videos with their artists be removed unless the site wanted to face a lawsuit.

This actually perpetuates a number of misconceptions. First "fair use" is merely a defense that can be used if you are accused of copyright infringement, but is ultimately decided in courts on a case by case basis. The criteria listed is a rather famous set of criteria that was suggested by a judge in a particular ruling, but does not guarantee that you won't be sued for violation of copyright nor does failing to meet these standards automatically mean that it is not fair use. Case in point is the VCR which does none of these things, but recording TV was still ruled as "fair use" by the Supreme Court, while documentarians which do usually meet this sort of criteria must still pay for the rights for clips used if they want to avoid future legal hassles.

As far as the music companies reactions to AMVs, I'd dismiss them as irrational considering that AMV editors/creators consistently cite their sources (song/artist), while radio stations rarely if ever do the same, meaning AMVs are more likely to sell CDs then radio play (on a per viewer/listener basis).