Copyright is another key component to planning your video if you intend to incorporate any media assets that you haven’t created yourself; media assets protected under copyright might include images, videos or audio.
Since removing content from a video that you’ve already published can be difficult and time consuming, it’s a good idea to verify that you either have permission to use content under copyright or that your use falls under a copyright exception before you create it.
We will preface what follows with the usual caveat that we are not providing legal advice. As the creator of the video, it will be your responsibility to evaluate whether your use of other people’s works complies with Canadian copyright law – but you can seek advice from the University’s Office of Legal Services by visiting https://copyright.mcmaster.ca/ or contacting them at copyright@mcmaster.ca.
Using Content Under Copyright in Your Video
Copyright is automatically applied to a work when it is created, most of what you encounter on the Internet will be protected by it – even if it seems like it’s freely available or there is no copyright symbol visible. That is, the Internet ≠ the Public Domain.
However, copyright law also seeks to balance the rights of the copyright owner with the rights of people who want to use works protected by copyright. There are multiple options available if you wish to incorporate copyright-protected works into your video.
The most common copyright exception that Canadian educators make use of in their teaching is Fair Dealing, which allows the user to copy a work for the purposes of education, research, private study, parody or satire. In addition to the use falling under an allowable purpose, the use itself must also be fair (refer to University’s Fair Dealing Policy, Appendix #1, section D).
The copy must be a short excerpt from a copyright-protected work – generally, up to 10% of the original work. Examples of what constitutes 10% of a work or another permissible amount can be found in the University’s Fair Dealing Policy, guideline 4.
While Fair Dealing is an available option for consideration, the two other exceptions below may be more applicable to the context of using copyright-protected works in a video you create if, for example, you wanted to use an entire work (such as an image that is not part of a copyright-protected work containing other images) or make your video available outside of a learning management system.
To determine whether your use of a copyright-protected work in a video would fall under Fair Dealing, contact copyright@mcmaster.ca.
Revisions to Canadian copyright law through the Copyright Modernization Act of 2012 introduced new exceptions to reflect the shifting norms set in motion by the ubiquity of networked, digital technologies. One was the “Work Available Through the Internet” section (30.04) of the Educational Institutions exceptions.
The exception can only be used by an educational institution or a person acting under the authority of one (i.e. you) and must meet a number of conditions, including mentioning the source of the work, not breaking a digital lock to copy it and using a copy that was made available over the Internet with the creator’s consent. You can read more about the exception in the University’s Fair Dealing Policy, Appendix #1, section H.
To determine whether your use of a copyright-protected work in a video would fall under the Work Available Through the Internet exception, contact copyright@mcmaster.ca.
Lastly, a copyright exception that was intended for use cases like creating a video which incorporates copyright-protected works is the Non-commercial User-generated Content exception, sometimes referred to as the mashup or YouTube exception. The exception is not limited to educational purposes, allows for entire works to be used and does not require the new work to be accessed behind a learning management system.
The new work (i.e. the video you create) must:
- be used solely for non-commercial purposes;
- mention the source of the copyright-protected work;
- not use an infringing copy of the copyright-protected work;
- not have a substantial adverse effect on the existing copy of the work, financial or otherwise.
The Non-commercial User-generated Content exception is not referenced in the University’s Fair Dealing Policy, so it is advisable to speak with the University’s Office of Legal Services for further guidance. To determine whether your use of a copyright-protected work in a video would fall under the Non-commercial User-generated Content exception, contact copyright@mcmaster.ca.
Leverage Creative Commons Content
Creative Commons (CC) content is a great alternative to using media assets with all rights reserved (i.e. marked with the © symbol). Creative Commons content is still protected by copyright, but the authors have given permission in advance for anyone to use their works according to the terms of the license.
Though using Creative Commons-licensed takes much of the uncertainty of using other people’s copyright-protected works, it is still important to follow the terms of the license. You can find out more about these terms in the “Finding Creative Commons-licensed content for your videos” resource.
If your use does not fall under a copyright exception and you cannot find a Creative Commons-licensed equivalent, you can always ask permission to use it from the copyright owner. The permission should be received in writing and cover your intended use of the copyrighted work. Contact copyright@mcmaster.ca to assist with requesting permission.
Safer than relying on copyright exceptions, you can incorporate content in your video that you already have permission to use. Sure, sometimes you need that exact image or audio track or video clip for teaching purposes – but if you’re simply looking for a generic picture of a dog riding a skateboard, Creative Commons-licensed content is the way to go! Creative Commons-licensed materials are copyrighted works that the owner has given permission in advance for anyone to use, meaning that you don’t have to ask them directly – provided you follow the terms of the license. The video below provides more information about Creative Comons licenses.
Creative Commons licenses are standardized agreements. They come in several “flavours” with respect to the terms of the license. You must follow the terms of the license to use the image, so be sure to pay attention to its terms. Most Creative Commons licenses have Attribution as a basic requirement.
Terms are often combined in a license, and some combinations are more restrictive than others. Works might be marked directly with the Creative Commons symbol, or a website might generally indicate that all of its content is licensed under Creative Commons.
You can read more about Creative Commons licenses on the Creative Commons website.
Sources of Creative Commons-licensed materials
You can find images and other content licensed under a Creative Commons license through a Google search. From Google’s image search interface, select the ‘Tools’ button to display additional drop-down menu options. Choose ‘Creative Commons licenses’ from the ‘License’ drop-down menu.
It’s a general filter for Creative Commons licenses, so visit the source of the image to verify the terms of the license before saving or copying the image (you may need the source to be able to attribute the image, anyway).
Note that content which does not have a Creative Commons license can occasionally be returned by mistake, so make sure to do this second step of visiting the image source to confirm! The license terms should be fairly easy to find; if they aren’t, assume the work is “all rights reserved” and move on..
When searching for images to use in your video, keep the following in mind:
- Find images that have a simple background and simple colours for the greatest visual impact
- Download the largest size and/or highest resolution image available, if you have a choice
- Record information about the images you use in a spreadsheet (or in an image manager like digiKam)
- the source URL for the image
- the image’s filename
- the author’s name (for attribution purposes)
- the terms of use, e.g. CC BY-NC or © (meaning that you’ll have to rely on a copyright exception)
- any other relevant details
Creative Commons content aggregators
Since it can be difficult to tell whether or not materials are available under a Creative Commons license “in the wild,” you may prefer to go directly to sites that aggregate Creative Commons-licensed content:
- Creative Commons
- Wikimedia Commons
- Flickr (not all content is CC, but allows you to limit your search by license)
- Pixabay (content is not Creative Commons-licensed per se but is licensed permissively)