copyright

[eddie]

I know that music is generally copyrited and you
need to pay or get permission to use it on a sound track, but what about snippets? What if you take a few seconds of something and alter it? filter it, tweak it? What about images? What if I took a few frames from another film and tweaked them? Such as made them black and white, or made a transparency of them? Does anyone know the answer?

[shakespeareskin]

ANY material, whether it's music, film, video, even pictures are considered copyrighted once they are created and it's technically illegal to use them in any form (short clips or snips, even massively edited ones included) without getting the rights to them.

[eddie]

Thanks, to be honest I thought as much.

[miker]

It is a grey area though.

For instance, Ben Burt 'signs' all his films with the sound effect lifted from on an old cowboys and indians film. (it's the 'Aaaarrrggghhhh' from all the Star Wars films)

The end of Duel, the lorry going over the cliff, the creaking noise is that of an old sfx from a dinosaur flick.

Remember all the trouble MARRS got into? Why doesn't that happen today, say with that crappy rapper who rapped over the Knight Rider theme?

I'm sure (maybe) that these two things are legal in the UK:

4 seconds or less sound/music is okay

copyright holder dead for more than 50 years, copyright has expired.

At the end of the day, who cares? A nice copyright suit could be just the publicity needed... another good reason to set up a Ltd. co in the UK!!

One of the things taught at art college is, don't be afraid to use other people's work as a starting point. There's a difference between that and what you might see for sale at the carboot sale!

[eddie]

Yeah thats the point. A lot of sound effects turn up over and over again, samples from other films, images being sampled and tweaked , but still recognisable. I do not believe that these have all been paid for or permission granted.
I suppose I could just do it anyway.
Not convinced by the copyright suit arguament.

Cheers

Ed

[shirt]

No one cares if you copy or use their shit except Metfagilla.... just give credit where needed.

[miker]

Yeah, do you think they wear suits when they're not on stage? (he says, conscious that he is, at this moment, wearing a suit himself)

[DPlatt007]

Unfortunatly, The copyright law has been changed so it is now 70 years after the persons death that copyright is lifted.
If you want to use copyright music try joining the Institute of amateur cinematographers, the can provide licences
to cover using copyright music. they can be found at www.theiac.org.uk
Hope this helps you. David..

[Ruthie]

Using clips for educational reasons is completely legal. Everything else you will have to get permission.

In one of my projects I used someone else's footage. It was actually really simple to get permission. I sent a fax with details on exactly how much time I was going to use, how I was going to use it and details of any effects. They faxed me back with a signature and that's about it.