3 ms·

Can a company legally just send any old gif containing copyright material (like all these do?) I see so many companies doing it, even tweeting it.

nategri 7y ago
Have also wondered about this. At this point it must be well understood/accepted that clips this small fall under "fair use" (or else there would have been a major legal sh*tstorm by now) but I would LOVE it if someone could chime in with specifics.
- henryfjordan 7y ago
  IANAL but basically, yeah this is probably mostly Fair Use. You consider a few factors to determine if something is Fair Use, like what the work was originally, how much was copied, and what was done with it. For a GIF from a movie that gets put into an email/slack, you're looking at a tiny portion being used in a different format that isn't being sold directly but rather just part of emails. If a copyright holder cared, they might be able to get an injunction stopping a company from using GIFs of their characters in promotional emails. They probably wouldn't get anything in terms of damages as what harm really occurred? It's not like I saw a gif and didn't need to see the whole movie. There might be statutory damages but those usually require bad faith which would be hard to argue. StartupGIFs might be less fair use-y though. If they are selling access to the gifs or otherwise using it for marketing purposes, now there is money that can be directly tied to the use of GIF, which is a factor that is considered in Fair Use AND an argument to be used for damages.
whalesalad 7y ago
You can do whatever the hell you want as long as you’re prepared to face consequences. In the case of sending gifs in an email, someone will first have to litigate you and then get to some kind of financial settlement/award. Then you gotta convince the other party to pay up / try and collect. The juice ain’t worth the squeeze. So yeah, you can.
- jonplackett 7y ago
  "The juice ain’t worth the squeeze", hadn't heard this expression before but I will definitely be adding it to my repertoire :)
dahart 7y ago
The answer is no, a company cannot legally just send any old gif containing copyright material. The only time it’s automatically legal is when the copyrights holder gives explicit license or permission. Under the Fair Use doctrine, it depends on what the source material is, how much of it is used, whether it damages the copyright holder’s ability to make money, whether the infringement is for commercial or non-profit purposes, etc.. A company is really unlikely to get sued for one or a few GIFs though, because there is an absolute deluge of minor copyright violations on the internet. If your entire business model depends completely on distributing minor copyright violations, you might be at risk for legal trouble... Some companies do actively defend their copyrights and are actively suing over GIFs and YouTube clips. There are brands that you don’t see in most GIF collections. Many companies don’t bother, or don’t have the money to bother, or can’t stop the flood, or don’t want to piss off the public who thinks that anything they can find in digital form can be legally distributed on social media. For some companies, they might like it and view it as free advertising.

nategri 7y ago

Have also wondered about this. At this point it must be well understood/accepted that clips this small fall under "fair use" (or else there would have been a major legal sh*tstorm by now) but I would LOVE it if someone could chime in with specifics.

henryfjordan 7y ago
IANAL but basically, yeah this is probably mostly Fair Use. You consider a few factors to determine if something is Fair Use, like what the work was originally, how much was copied, and what was done with it. For a GIF from a movie that gets put into an email/slack, you're looking at a tiny portion being used in a different format that isn't being sold directly but rather just part of emails. If a copyright holder cared, they might be able to get an injunction stopping a company from using GIFs of their characters in promotional emails. They probably wouldn't get anything in terms of damages as what harm really occurred? It's not like I saw a gif and didn't need to see the whole movie. There might be statutory damages but those usually require bad faith which would be hard to argue. StartupGIFs might be less fair use-y though. If they are selling access to the gifs or otherwise using it for marketing purposes, now there is money that can be directly tied to the use of GIF, which is a factor that is considered in Fair Use AND an argument to be used for damages.

whalesalad 7y ago

You can do whatever the hell you want as long as you’re prepared to face consequences. In the case of sending gifs in an email, someone will first have to litigate you and then get to some kind of financial settlement/award. Then you gotta convince the other party to pay up / try and collect. The juice ain’t worth the squeeze. So yeah, you can.

jonplackett 7y ago
"The juice ain’t worth the squeeze", hadn't heard this expression before but I will definitely be adding it to my repertoire :)

dahart 7y ago

The answer is no, a company cannot legally just send any old gif containing copyright material. The only time it’s automatically legal is when the copyrights holder gives explicit license or permission. Under the Fair Use doctrine, it depends on what the source material is, how much of it is used, whether it damages the copyright holder’s ability to make money, whether the infringement is for commercial or non-profit purposes, etc.. A company is really unlikely to get sued for one or a few GIFs though, because there is an absolute deluge of minor copyright violations on the internet. If your entire business model depends completely on distributing minor copyright violations, you might be at risk for legal trouble... Some companies do actively defend their copyrights and are actively suing over GIFs and YouTube clips. There are brands that you don’t see in most GIF collections. Many companies don’t bother, or don’t have the money to bother, or can’t stop the flood, or don’t want to piss off the public who thinks that anything they can find in digital form can be legally distributed on social media. For some companies, they might like it and view it as free advertising.