Wilkins Coffee Muppets question

[GelflingWaldo]

In reading the copyright laws I found the following. (The short answer is you can have them)

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The Copyright Act allows the copying of copyright material providing the use of the material is 'fair'. To copy a work which is not avaiblale commercially is fair, but unfair to copy any work that you can buy;

You should attribute a creator when you reproduce a work or film and it should be clear and reasonably prominent so that the person receiving a reproduction of the work of film will have notice of the creator's identity;
A creator's work should be respected and not modified or subject to derogatory treatment by distorting it, nor should you do something to a creator's work that is prejudicial to the reputation of the creator;

No one other than the copyright owner or legally approved agents can make money from the sale of copyright material. Any distribution must be for no profit.

Copyrighted characters may not be used to indorce a product or servie not approved by the copyright owner.

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In looking at the copyrights for commercials: distribution of unaltered television commercials, radio promos, or other print and media ad campaign material is premisialbe as long as the products and characters are not missused or distorted to misrepresent the product or to promote another product. Intact commercials not avalible commercially is premisiable.

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As these are unalted, "historical", non-commercially avalible TV commercials they are allowed to be traded as long as you:
1) Don't Sell them for money
2) Don't alter them to misrepresent Wilkins
3) Don't use the character or ads to represent another product or service
4) You don't take ownership of the videos or characters
5) Respect any requests from the copyright owners as to the treatment of the videos

 

[Iokitek]

Hey thanks alot! That's good news. Do these rules apply to anything other than commercials? Such as TV series or movies?

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Do you have a reference for that information?

Although I believe you're correct about copying commercials for education/research purposes, posting them on the web or sending them to other people is actually considered distribution which is normally considered a violation of the owner's copyright.

 

[GelflingWaldo]

I don't know if it applies to movies and TV shows (I would say it does not, as their copyrights are more complicated, especially movies). Advertisments are different in nature than a movie or tv show, so I think the law is a bit different.

The source for all of this is The official US copyright office website: http://www.copyright.gov/laws/

 

[scarecroe]

Do you have a reference for that information?

Although I believe you're correct about copying commercials for education/research purposes, posting them on the web or sending them to other people is actually considered distribution which is normally considered a violation of the owner's copyright.

Any distribution must be for no profit.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Thanks, I couldn't find the section that refers to the exception you mentioned (any chance you have the exact URL?) but that's interesting. I've never seen a reference to that particular exception and couldn't find one online, but it makes sense.

This would definately not apply to TV show and movies though. The general rule of thumb in U.S. copyright law is that when it's impracticable to obtain permission, you shouldn't distribute or copy copyrighted material unless it's virtually indisputable that “fair use” applies. Basically if it's copyrighted and you're not 100% sure it's fair use don't copy.

Sad as it is that's law.

 

[erniebert1234ss]

back on-topic, plz respond to my questions

BJ

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I think it was, wasn't it?

 

[erniebert1234ss]

maybe, maybe not, but who wants to try their hand at answering those questions?

BJ

 

[erniebert1234ss]

bump

BJ