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I recently had a debacle with this and wanted to share some thoughts regarding avoiding copyright infringement.

None of the information below constitutes legal advice. I recommend consulting an attorney before acting on any of this information.

1. If an image/video/sound is not explicitly stated as being under the creative commons license or being able to use with/without attribution, then assume it's copyrighted. Although the majority of people may not hunt you down and sue you for using it in your video or campaign, there are people out there that will (no cease and desist letter - just send you an invoice and demand ridiculously high payment or legal action).

2. If you are going to include a copyrighted work in your image/video, be sure to get written permission from the creator or don't risk using it.

3. Even if you attribute the copyrighted work with a link/name, unless you have written permission from the creator, you are still infringing on their copyright.

4. Just because you don't get caught now, doesn't mean you can't get caught later. If you have a wildly successful campaign, it will put an extra high-intensity lens on your activities and information in your campaign page/video. You can still be sued from a campaign done months and months ago.

5. This information applies to any blogs or social media profiles you are running during the campaign.

Resources for free images:
- http://sourcedigit.com/2773-top-5-place ... rcial-use/
- Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Resources for free video stock:
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/download-f ... eo-intros/
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/20-free ... deo-sites/

Stories about what can happen:
http://www.contentfac.com/copyright-inf ... are-scary/
http://www.blogher.com/bloggers-beware- ... y?page=0,1

Has copyright infringement been a concern for you? What do you think?

What about the fair use doctrine? I've used a picture of a Bella Pillar greeting card to indicate that she inspired me to do my greeting cards. it's editorial; I'm not using it to sell my product though I might email her just same. Doubt if she would respond. Cheers.

To be honest, I don't really know and I think most people can't say for sure. I've pasted the "fair use" language below. To me, it says you need to be able to defend the use if a dispute arises. 99% of the time, no dispute will arise, but it's that 1% that can sink you. I think your example is "comment" but I'm not sure.

Fair Use: "the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

Good article on the topic: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/copy ... ne-images/

jeanetmarie wrote:What about the fair use doctrine? I've used a picture of a Bella Pillar greeting card to indicate that she inspired me to do my greeting cards. it's editorial; I'm not using it to sell my product though I might email her just same. Doubt if she would respond. Cheers.

I will be doing an AMA in the question section, these are the types of questions I can help you answer.

sbriggman wrote:To be honest, I don't really know and I think most people can't say for sure. I've pasted the "fair use" language below. To me, it says you need to be able to defend the use if a dispute arises. 99% of the time, no dispute will arise, but it's that 1% that can sink you. I think your example is "comment" but I'm not sure.

Fair Use: "the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

Good article on the topic: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/copy ... ne-images/

I have an article coming up next week on copyright and can cover fair use, it's often complex to understand.