Copyright and Fair Use

 Your Challenge!         

         You are a YouTuber, and you (along with your team) do a weekly show, it�s big on YouTube. Really big. You have your own channel. You even have sponsors. But you also have some competition. One of your biggest sponsors is YouTube itself - they want to sell ads. Lately, YouTube execs have decided that too many people are violating copyright. They highly �suggest� that you do a short YouTube video on copyright and fair use as your topic for the week. You have a staff to produce this video. There�s a host/writer, a producer, a researcher, a director/camera person and an editor.

             Just  one more thing, you have competition. Several new YouTube shows are giving you a run for your money - literally. And, some of them are pretty good! You hear from some friends in the business, that YouTube has asked them to do the same video copyright and fair use! Your YouTube sponsors will be watching closely to see who does the best job!

How you will be judged!

          Being that you're a successful YouTuber, you know that you can't put on a great show by yourself. You and your team must work together to create this 3-5 minute video. Even though you play different roles, you will help each other learn about copyright and fair use. Together you will explore resources, think about what it all means, talk about what's important, and finally coming up with a creative way to present the most important information to your viewers. In short, the goal is to produce a video that educates (and holds the attention of) your viewers on the most important aspects of fair use and copyright. To help you know whether you've covered what those YouTube judges are looking for consider the questions below. Hint: click on the embedded link to learn more about the question!

1. What is copyright and fair use and how would you explain it to a friend?

2. When do you have to ask for permission to use a copyrighted work?

3. What are the 4 factors that help decide fair use and how would you simply explain them to a friend?

4. What are some examples of fair use?

5. Why should a person care whether or not they use a copyrighted work? Who's gonna know? What could happen?

6. Is our video creative and entertaining while being accurate?

7. Is our video clear so others can understand the message?

8. Does our video look and sound good?

Can you give me an example of a YouTuber who does a regular show?

          Yep! According to a November 10th, 2014 article in Business Insider, 24 year old Ryan Higa is one of the top 20 YouTubers in the world. You can check out his YouTube channel here:

Can you give me an idea of how the show might go together?

          Sure. What you're really asking for is what we call a show "rundown". It's really just the order that things might appear in a video. So, for this video it might look like this (but feel free to do what your team thinks best):

1. Fade up to full screen title of show with music under.
2. Host on camera introduces show and tells what's gonna be covered.
3. A combination of host, graphics, images and other stuff describes what copyright and fair use are...
4. A combination of host, graphics, images and other stuff describes 4 factors.
5. Examples of fair use.
6. Copyright ethics and legal stuff.
7. Summarize what you covered in the show.
8. Host closes the show, suggests other places to find info, and says thanks for watching and goodbye.
9. Full screen title of show with music.
10. Credits.
11. Fade to black.