YouTube Movie Reviews? Copyright help.

[iGoDZoFLuiGii]

So recently I wanted to do Movie reviews, this thought has been with me for about 4 years now, and the one thing thats holded me off was the copyright with it.

Now I know I can do a review about a movie, but im more concerned about the footage / materials I can use in my video. because I know I can use still images from the movies as visuals and thats fine but with some movies theres always some scenes that can only best be describe in a visual rather them a image, because then the audience would know what you were referencing or describing at that point.

I want to know can I use footage from a Movie in my review, Im not taking about the whole movie, im on about small clips here and there just to describe and explain what I mean, off course my entire video will be commentary based, where I discuss the film fun nature and bad moments and why it makes for a good, bad or alright film, but before I can proceed I want to take the best approach, because I dont want to start making reviews and then get bombarded with copyright claims and strikes. Also would I need to put anything in the description of each video or a disclaimer at the start of the video?

Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[LW]

As I usually talk about fair use in giant extents I'll start you off with the punchline before going into a usual flow of words:

You can use the footage in a review video.

...if:

• Your own review/opinion stands as the main focus of the video, not the scenes included
• Your video does not create a market substitute to the movie itself (viewer has different experiences when seeing your video and the movie)

So far for fair use general rules. However movie companies can just not care about that without an issue 90% of the time.

Let's go by some examples:

• You make a review video talking about the movie in great extents, showing two clips of the movie to underline what you're saying. - This is fine. The main focus is your review and the minority of the video are the clips. This likely wouldn't even be picked up by Content ID and you should be safe* from strikes by manual reviews.
• You talk about the movie, underlining the entire video with the movie footage. - Welcome to where it gets interesting. You will get a Content ID match with a really high chance but because of fair use you should still be safe* from strikes.
• You talk about the movie for two minutes and then proceed to play the first eight minutes of the movie uncut - Now you've made it here, managed to find the forums, get a partner badge which is what most people don't manage to do. You should have enough idea to know what will happen here. Spoiler alert: you'll get a claim 100%, probably a strike if it's a good claimant.

* By "safe from strikes" I don't mean you can't get any strikes, I just mean you have enough of a legal foot to stand on to make the strike invalid.

Note that fair use isn't decided by YouTube, it's decided in court in the end. Fair use law is really broad and unclear so there's always a risk stuff will happen even if you watch out for fair use.

 

[iGoDZoFLuiGii]

As I usually talk about fair use in giant extents I'll start you off with the punchline before going into a usual flow of words:

You can use the footage in a review video.

...if:

• Your own review/opinion stands as the main focus of the video, not the scenes included
• Your video does not create a market substitute to the movie itself (viewer has different experiences when seeing your video and the movie)

So far for fair use general rules. However movie companies can just not care about that without an issue 90% of the time.

Let's go by some examples:

• You make a review video talking about the movie in great extents, showing two clips of the movie to underline what you're saying. - This is fine. The main focus is your review and the minority of the video are the clips. This likely wouldn't even be picked up by Content ID and you should be safe* from strikes by manual reviews.
• You talk about the movie, underlining the entire video with the movie footage. - Welcome to where it gets interesting. You will get a Content ID match with a really high chance but because of fair use you should still be safe* from strikes.
• You talk about the movie for two minutes and then proceed to play the first eight minutes of the movie uncut - Now you've made it here, managed to find the forums, get a partner badge which is what most people don't manage to do. You should have enough idea to know what will happen here. Spoiler alert: you'll get a claim 100%, probably a strike if it's a good claimant.

* By "safe from strikes" I don't mean you can't get any strikes, I just mean you have enough of a legal foot to stand on to make the strike invalid.

Note that fair use isn't decided by YouTube, it's decided in court in the end. Fair use law is really broad and unclear so there's always a risk stuff will happen even if you watch out for fair use.

Thank you so much for your response, its given me more to think about now and gives me more confidence to make a review, my main focus is the review, and if I happen to go over a certain clip / line for the movie it be to breakdown that clip to give the viewers watching my thoughts are about it, because sometimes the clip can display more then one thing, and many people dont pick up on the small details and rather then explaining the scene I can show them a visual while I walk them through it.

its when I did my Top 10 scooby doo movies, I used images rather then include some scenes from the movie because I was unsure about the copyright side, where some scenes would of made the video better because some people watching might not of known a scene I was on about or its hard to understand from a single image taken from the VHS tapes comparing them to DVD scene images. overall I want to share my thoughts but allow to show some scenes if need to capitalise on.

 

[riganthor]

there will always be companies whom will try to claim your cotent even if you hold strictly to fair use. what you need to do is make sure your case is as strong as possible and make sure that you keep the review central, besides that there isnt much you can do. I wish you the best ofluck

 

[iGoDZoFLuiGii]

there will always be companies whom will try to claim your cotent even if you hold strictly to fair use. what you need to do is make sure your case is as strong as possible and make sure that you keep the review central, besides that there isnt much you can do. I wish you the best ofluck

Thank you so much for your help