Copyright Tips

We've been receiving a lot of questions from members about what makes a copyright infringing and ineligible for upload on Mozook. Posting copyright-infringing content can lead to the termination of your account, and possibly monetary damages if a copyright owner takes you to court. Here are some guidelines to help you determine whether your video is eligible or whether it infringes someone else's copyright.

As a general matter, we at Mozook respect the rights of artists and creators, and hope you will work with us to keep our community a creative, legal and positive experience for everyone, including artists and creators.

How To Make Sure Your Content Does Not Infringe Someone Else's Copyrights

The way to ensure that your content doesn't infringe someone else's copyright is to use your skills and imagination to create something completely original. It could be as simple as taping some of your friends goofing around, and as complicated as filming your own short movie with a script, actors, and the whole works. If it's all yours, you never have to worry about the copyright -- you own it! Make sure to follow the other guidelines in the terms of use, too.

Be sure that all components of your content are your original creation -- even the audio portion. For example, if you use an audio track of a sound recording owned by a record label without that record label's permission, your video is infringing the copyrights of others, and we will take it down as soon as we become aware of it.

Commercial Content Is Copyrighted

The most common reason we take down content for copyright infringement is that they are direct copies of copyrighted content and the owners of the copyrighted content have alerted us that their content is being used without their permission. Once we become aware of an unauthorized use, we will remove the content promptly. That is the law.

A Few Guiding Principles

• It doesn't matter how long, short, small or large the content is, or exactly how it got to Mozook. If you taped content off cable, videotaped your TV screen, recorded audio content off the air, or downloaded it from some other website, it is still copyrighted, and requires the copyright owner's permission to distribute.
• It doesn't matter whether or not you give credit to the owner/author/songwriter -- it is still copyrighted.
• It doesn't matter that you are not selling the content for money -- it is still copyrighted.
• It doesn't matter whether or not the content contains a copyright notice -- it is still copyrighted.
• It doesn't matter whether other similar videos appear on our site -- it is still copyrighted.
• It doesn't matter if you created content made of short clips of copyrighted content -- even though you edited it together, the content is still copyrighted.

What Will Happen If You Upload Infringing Content

Anytime we become aware that content or any part of content on our site infringes the copyrights of a third party, we will take it down from the site. We are required to do so by law. If you believe that content on the site infringes your copyright, send us a copyright notice and we will take it down. If you believe that we have removed content that you uploaded in error and that you are the copyright owner or have permission, you can file a counter notice and let us know. If you repeatedly post infringing content, your account will be terminated. This is also a requirement of the law.

Using Some Copyrighted Content in Your Content

While videos that are direct copies of someone else's content are clear copyright violations, there are certain very limited circumstances in which the use of very short clips of a copyrighted video or song may be legal even without permission. This is known as the "fair use" principle of copyright law.

To determine whether a particular use of a short clip of a copyrighted video or song qualifies as a "fair use," you need to analyze and weigh four factors that are outlined in the U.S. copyright statute. Unfortunately, the weighing of these four factors is often quite subjective and complex, and for this reason, it's often difficult to determine whether a particular use is a "fair use." If the copyright owner disagrees with your interpretation of fair use, the copyright owner may chose to resolve the dispute in court. If it turns out that your use is not a fair use, then you are infringing the copyrights of the owner and you may be liable for monetary damages.

If you would like to learn more about the principle of fair use, below are a few links to websites that discuss it. Please remember, however, that your decision about whether and how to exercise your fair use rights is solely yours, and we at Mozook bear no responsibility for your decision.

Fair Use Links on the Web

• http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
• http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/
• http://www.copyrightwebsite.com/Info/Law/FairUse.aspx
• http://chillingeffects.org/fairuse/

DISCLAIMER: WE ARE NOT YOUR ATTORNEYS, AND THE INFORMATION WE PRESENT HERE IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. WE PRESENT THIS INFORMATION FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.

Date Last Modified:
This Privacy Notice was last modified November 4, 2006.

Contact Information:
Please contact Mozook with any questions or comments about these copyright tips using this contact form.