While you have made your video, there is a high risk of plagiarism of your work, intentionally or unintentionally. Thus it is a sensitive situation because your content can easily get targeted if you don’t follow the laws regarding the video copyright.
So you have to protect your work and follow the video copyright laws to avoid any issues and plagiarism as well.
To make sure such things don’t happen to you in any way, follow these video copyright laws.
Copyright Infringement
There is a lot of video content available online that you can access easily that is copyright protected.
So, if you are going to copy someone’s content without their consent or asking their permission. It is called copyright infringement. And you can’t do it because it is against the pursuit of the law.
Also Read: 12 Different Styles of Videos: When to Use Which One
Release forms
If you are making a video where there is a focus on a specific individual or you are using people as a subject. Then you have to get the release forms signed by those people to get permission to capture them in the video. And so you can release the video for whatever intended to propose you are using.
But if there is no focus on any specific individual, then you don’t have to sign any release forms from hundreds of people.
Location rights
Some places simply allow anyone to shoot videos without any signed notice. But at some private places, you have to get permission from the local council or local authority for shooting.
Such private shooting venues will be off-limit if you don’t get a release signed by the property owner.
Also Read: Video Pre-Production Checklist
Legally acquire audio
If you are making a video, you need to have a piece of background music too. If the content maker finds the right music for the video, it is a moment of bliss for him/her.
But, again there is one problem, you need to have permission to use it. Or it must be royalty-free.
Stills and images
Similarly, if you have to use any image or stills in your video. You have to design or make it yourself. Because otherwise, you have to ask for permission from whoever’s images they are.
If it falls out of your expertise, you can buy the images from Shutterstock. Or get free stock images from Unsplash or Pixabay.
Also Read: Tips For Video Recording Yourself Professionally
Copyright registration
To prevent any plagiarism of your content, register your content with the relevant government authorities. This way your final work is protected and no one can be allowed to plagiarise your content in any way possible.
Still, if someone does it, it will be against the video copyright laws.
Copyright notice
If you have the copyright registration, then you have a video ownership rights contract. Tell everyone that your content is copyright protected so no one can copy it. Place your copyright notice with the video in an appropriate format.
Also Read: Video Optimization Tips For Faster Loading
Duration of copyright
You have to issue the copyright notice again after the completion of the time. There are factors that vary the duration of the copyright i.e. when was the copyright notice released, or the death of the creator.
Thus it varies from circumstance to circumstance.
Fair use
Fair use supervises certain content under copyright law and whether it can be used without the creator’s permission or not.
Here are some fair use copyright conditions where you can use the copyright-protected video without any permission:
- Criticism: If you are reviewing a movie or music, it is acceptable to use copyrighted material without permission.
- Mockery: If you are poking fun at something.
- Critique: It depends on how you are using the material. If you are using the content only to illustrate your points. Then it is permissible. For example, gamers record themselves playing video games for the first time. And give their observations i.e. funny. It is called fair use within boundaries.
- Scholastic: if you are making a video for educational purposes. It is fair to reference a certain person’s work to make people understand a certain situation.
Losing copyright
Every video content creator should be aware of the possibility that he/she can lose the rights of copyright.
If you intend to work on a certain platform, you may have to lose some or all the rights to the video.
So if you are working with a third party, make sure that you read the fine print before any agreements or releasing your video to them. Because after that you’ll not be able to do anything.
Also Read: Video Books (Vbooks) – An Alternative To Ebooks
Conclusion
Yes, it is some kind of an issue, but while making a video, focus your attention on the content and it should be the last thing to worry about. Because now you are aware of all the video copyright laws that you can follow. And hopefully, there will not be any case of going against the copyright laws.
You won’t be able to commit any copyright mistakes and you can easily protect your video from copyright infringement also.
