Would this be legal to do?
-
Hello fellow Mozzers!
I was wondering if anyone knows if this would be legal to do? Can we use a part of a movie or a TV show lets say 10-15 seconds in our commercials for the website? We are selling a product that has been shown (non branded) in many movies and TV shows that characters have a funny and hard time using and so do many millions of people. We want to create short 30 second video ads and post them on youtube and our site. The 30 second video would include a part of a movie or a TV show unedited of course. Tried to search the web but couldn't find any real answers, thought maybe some of you have some knowledge or input on this subject.
Thank you in advance!
Igor
-
I'm not a lawyer nor do I play one on the Internet.
But I am a former TV and publishing executive who dealt with these sorts of issues all the time.
And I can tell you that your proposed use of copyrighted material for your own commercial benefit raises every possible alarm bell. My advice: don't even bother consulting a lawyer. You will just waste a lot of money for a statement of these obvious alternatives:
-
Forget the whole idea
-
Negotiate with with the copyright holder to license the material (with little chance of success, even if you are willing to pay a hefty fee)
If you use the material without licensing it, you will almost certainly be served with a takedown notice. The matter will likely end if you take down the material. If you don't take down the material, you will likely be sued and incur substantial legal fees on the way to a settlement.
-
-
Guys thank you so much for your responses! I kind of had a feeling we would need to get permission from the owners... I think contacting a lawyer is the best way to go to be 100% certain.
-
Probably not legal, copyright infringement.. However, I would not worry too much if someone has a problem with it they will contact you to take it down, make sure you do so.
-
I am not a lawyer, so this should not be construed as legal advice
I am fairly positive that would violate copyright laws, intellectual property laws, and possibly and right of publicity. You would need to get permission from the creators of the TV shows/commercials to use the clips. You should consult with a lawyer/attorney to be safe. Many will offer free consultations. Some things may be protected by the Parody law.
If you do go ahead with this, I would also suggest purchasing liability insurance first to ensure you are protected should anyone sue you.
I suggest checking out some of these videos from Reel SEO about legal issues when creating videos
-
Not without permission to do so.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What type of website is best for seo.
I need a new website for my health insurance business. What type is best for SEO? Many thanks
Web Design | | laurentjb0 -
404
We find 404 pages on our company website using Screaming Frog SEO tool. it's important to fix these 404 errors, a web designer can normally help.
Web Design | | sarahwalsh0 -
Is managed wordpress hosting bad for seo?
hi, i would like to create my own website, but I am confused either to choose cpanel hosting or managed wordpress
Web Design | | alan-shultis0 -
What things i should do to add more attractiveness in my site?
I have 4 years of experience in feedback and survey of different companies for the people who want to learn some from online education about how to do something? and people want to get ease in daily life skills Kroger feedback provides them with a platform to learn everything about surveys and how to drive some to its highest peaks. It all works for People out there through Education SO I have now my own website ready to go but there is a problem in its on-page ranking factors I shall be thankful to you if some from you answer my question What things I should do to add more attractiveness to my site? take a look at my recent view of my site take a look at this Kroger feedback if somebody from you can answer my request??
Web Design | | SEOTOOLS021 -
My visibility went from 14% to 3.33% this week. HTTPS Change?
So I am trying to figure out how my google rankings dropped from 3 to 9 This past week. Could it be the new HTTPS security issue? My site was created in HTTP not HTTPS. Is this an easy fix? Can I hire someone on this site to fix this?
Web Design | | Boodreaux2 -
Thinking about redesigning site to reduce bounce rate - have a couple of questions
BACKGROUND Im looking at redesigning the website for a creative consultancy to improve the user experience. The website is mainly an image portfolio along with “press”, “our services”, “about us”, “contact” pages. I originally designed the website a few years ago and when we did, we wanted to make the image portfolio the most important feature. So we made it a full screen JS image slider with lazy loading of images, so that there are about 40 full screen images on the homepage that rotate. From a users point of view i still feel this is the best system as it very quickly allows them to browse the portfolio, which we looking for a creative consultancy is their UPS (unique selling point). The site has a very strong backlink profile compared to its competitors in the SERPS it has about 20-25% increase in PA and DA. But our site has been slipping down the rankings in recent years / months. From spot 1-2 to about spot 5-7. MY HYPOTHESIS I think that the reason the site may be dropping back in the SERP is that although its a very usable site, all its portfolio information is “too easy to find / view” and results in a user coming to our site, seeing everything they need to see, then bouncing back to the SERP. Our site has a bounce rate of 40-60%. Where as on competitors sites, their “portfolio” is a separate page off the homepage, so a users has to click through to a separate page, and even if they don't like the design content of the portfolio it doesn't get logged as a bounce. MY QUESTION Does bounce rate affect SERP ranking ? Could the sites SERP performance be improved by redesigning the site to put the portfolio on a separate page so a user would have to click through to it, if that would get the bounce rate down, would the site see a benefit even if people still clicked back to the SERP results eventually after seeing our portfolio, even though it wasn't a true 1 page bounce ? Dose time on site affect SERP ranking ? Is there a way i can see a competitor's bounce rate ? Would welcome any other thoughts inputs on this matter.
Web Design | | sl_pa0 -
Payment Options in Footer
Hi Moz Community. I'm currently working on cleaning up a website footer on an e-commerce site. I was curious to find out if including payment options is important? Either text or image icons. Including Visa, AMEX etc. Are there benefits of displaying them? Image attached. Thanks vcdoL
Web Design | | Kdruckenbrod0 -
Quality Traffic - Terrible Results
Hello all, I have been working hard on my SEO (and SEM) to the point where I'm getting plenty of traffic from my targeted keywords. The only problem is that none of this people are becoming leads (the goal for our business). Anything jump out about these pages in terms of how to get people more likely to get to the form page? www.enertiv.com/solutions/
Web Design | | Enertiv
www.enertiv.com/solutions/asset-intelligence
www.enertiv.com/solutions/automatic-tenant-submetering
www.enertiv.com/solutions/enertiv-two-meter Anything on the form page that could be optimized to drive more form completions? www.enertiv.com/get-started Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks0