thefourthvine | Poll: Vid Permissions

Recently, I have been doing some codeine-enhanced pondering of vids - specifically, linking to them or recommending them, and how we do that, and how we get permission to do that. (This was inspired by a discussion with someone, but I won't be mentioning her name unless she indicates that she wants me to.) Because in media fandom, my understanding is that fannish etiquette requires you to ask permission before you link to or recommend a vid. But I could be wrong. I have yet to get my hands on

miss_manners161's Guide to Fannish Etiquette. That thing is so damned hard to find.

So, in the absence of a definitive ruling, I thought I'd ask vidders.

There aren't, however, a lot of vidders reading this LJ, I don't think. And I'd like to get responses from as wide a cross-section of the vid-making community as possible. So, if you are a vidder (or, as AMV people put it, editor) - or if you aren't, but a lot of vidders read your LJ, or if you have the password to the Secret Clubhouse where all the cool vidkids hang out - could you please link to or pimp this? Great would be my joy and appreciation.

Obviously, only those with LJ accounts can take this poll, but anyone can comment anonymously. (Or, heck, email me if you like - thefourthvine at livejournal dot com will find me.)

And, just to repeat: this poll is for those who have vidded only. There will be a poll for non-vidders, though, coming soon.

[Poll #796561]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't need the law explained to me. You're getting all pissy for nothing. I'm simply saying if studios were ever going to TRULY crack down on this kind of thing (which I doubt) there are much bigger fish to fry than us.

There have been a handful of C&D letters targeted at vidders (and this means that a lot of lawyers make a lot of money disagreeing with our interpetatation that vidding/fan fiction = fairuse) - I'd guess I see around one a month in my online travels. In the great sea of Internet, this is probably not 'a lot', but it does feel like we're mosquitoes being picked off randomly.

That being said: I'd always caution any vidder in approaching any music artist, show creator, studio executive or showbiz person directly. The more visible you are (Youtube or Boing Boing) the greater you'll stand out among the herd...of mosquitoes (okay my analogies are failing here).

That's unfortunate. I know some HUGE (and popular) vid sites that have been out there for years now that haven't heard a peep from anyone. I guess they're just lucky.

Tell that to the folks who've gotten C&D letters.

It won't be the studios necessarily. It is far more likely to be the RIAA going after the distribution of the music. Currently they seem to be concentrating on P2P and places like YouTube. A little caution on distributing vids would make it even less likely for vidders to be the latest targe of the music industry.

Historically, yes, the studios have turned a blind eye, but they are less likely to do so if fans are constantly in their face about it, and redistributing even vid clips as well as music is illegal -- it says so right at the beginning of most DVD sets "distributing...even for non-commercial purposes..."

I think the only thing required here is a little discretion. I sincerely enjoy vids, I'm willing to jump through a few hoops to continue to enjoy them. I'd rather you guys keep doing what your doing, and if that means locking down sites or being cautious about where and how we link, it all works for me.

Poll: Vid Permissions

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