Copyright question

New copyright question. I'm about to hand in my Masters dissertation on Tuesday. I interviewed some kids about some texts based on a novel. I realised that I should include the (slightly adapted) excerpts I used as appendices (around 5 pages worth out of 400-odd pages). I'm pretty sure no-one's going to bat an eye at this, but... what if the examiners go all strict on me? Would I be infringing copyright? Many thanks for any advice - I am too busy writing up to find a plausible answer on the net...

It's a Scottish novel btw. No idea if that makes a difference.

(slightly adapted)?

I changed about 5% of the text to make it easier to understand and chopped one or two sentences.

can you not just block quote and cite?

That's what I was thinking, but I suddenly wasn't sure whether, like, 5 full pages is too much. Am I being paranoid?

you are citing 5 full pages all in one chunk or in bits and pieces throughout the paper?

All in one chunk. I don't cite anywhere else in the paper - there, I'm citing the participants' responses to the task. This will just be reproducing the task (the excerpt they read) in an appendix.

cite it

Yep, am citing it in the appendix. 5 pages doesn't tip me over into some magical percentage that infringes copyright?

No, it's 1 chapter or 10% of the total work, whichever is highest, for fair use under English law. Deffo cite it though.

Fabulous - thanks Neil, I knew there was some percentage involved. Phew.

Neil OTM - you're fine.

Nae bother!

Just got to finish writing the fucker now. Thanks again.

I just recently painted a picture of a 'vehicle' from Star Wars, (it's not a direct copy of a scene just an abstract conversion of a tie fighter)

I now suspect that I can't include this in any public portfolio of mine due to Lucas films/Disney copyright, can I?

Had a quick look online before posting this on here, but it looks like a mine field out there and people mostly talking about photography or comic characters.

I don't think there's an easy answer. You could argue fair use, especially if you're not copying a specific scene, such things tend to get decided on a case by case basis. But what's the worst that could happen, a cease and desist letter?

I once saw a painting of an x-wing at the royal academy summer show.

Another thing occurred to me, Lucas nicked the Probe Droid from Jean Giraud anyway.

I guess he could have had permission, I don't know.

He died a few years ago, sadly.

Just add some funny text to the vehicle's side, and say it's parody, you'll be protected by fair use.

Giraud, I mean. Lucas is still alive.

ste it's really kind of a risk assessment question. ledge is probably right that the most likely bad thing that would happen is a takedown notice. i mean, think of ALL the star wars fan art and derivative works out there, it's endless. a lawsuit is very unlikely unless you are selling the work.

fair use is a stretch, US copyright law specifies that it's really just meant for things like "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research." whether a use is fair is determined in court on a case-by-case basis. you can, however, use the four factors of fair use as listed in US copyright law to guide your assessment of whether or not your use is fair:

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature (i.e. are you selling your work?) or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work (i.e. are you pulling from a scholarly article or a commercial, artistic work);

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work (again, are you selling it and is lucas already in the business of selling rights and licenses to make derivative works of his creations).

these factors are meant to be weighed holistically. that said there has been some recent cases in which a use is determined to be fair largely in terms of whether it is "transformative", i.e. does your use add a new value, context, or expression of the original work, and was value added to the original work by creating new insights and understandings? this is mostly reflected in the first factor and while the other factors matter, if the use is sufficiently "transformative" it can outweigh the other three factors. this is all determined in court though, which will likely never happen for you

lookit

― let me be your friend on the other end! (Karl Malone),Wednesday, 15 April 2020 19:44 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

can i talk to someone about this pls