So, so tired of trying to explain this.
Aug. 5th, 2003 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tzikehIf a fan uses footage from a television show to make a vid, that vid is called a derivative work. It is not stealing. It is not theft.
If a fan uses footage from another fan's vid and puts it up as their own vid, that vid is called a plagiarized work. It's stealing, and it's not the way to make friends and influence people in your chosen community (in this case, fandom).
How are they different, you ask?
Let us pretend, for the sake of this discussion, that I have made a vid using footage from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. No one, not ONE PERSON, is looking at this vid and thinking "Goodness, tzikeh has created a television show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Where did she get the money to pay Sarah Michelle Gellar?" However, they may think "Goodness, look at the spectacular editing job tzikeh has done - what a clever juxtaposition of scenes - and what an appropriate song choice - and ooh, look at that color filter effect she chose to illustrate that point!"
The work I have done is recognizable because of what it is not - it is not the casting, the lighting, the direction, the costuming, or any other element of the television show. My audience knows what I have done and what I have not done instantly. They know that Buffy is not a result of my work, or my creativity. My work is on display because it is presented against the background of the show itself.
Now, if someone takes my clever juxtaposition of scenes and my editing and my color filter effect (which, if the vid is any good at all, took me no small amount of time), puts another song over it instead of the one I chose, substitutes a clip at the beginning and the end, and then makes it available for viewing as their vid - they have stolen my work. My work is now mistaken for their work. They are presenting my creativity as their own, and that's plagiarism. Stealing, for those who don't like words with more than two syllables.
To reiterate - the fact that vidders use footage from a television show to make vids does not IN ANY WAY mean that using edited footage from another vidder's work in your own vid is acceptable or even excuseable. In other words - "You steal from the show in the first place, so you don't have a leg to stand on" is not an argument that holds water. Vidders do not steal anything. IT IS NOT THE SAME THING. Deal with it.
If a fan uses footage from another fan's vid and puts it up as their own vid, that vid is called a plagiarized work. It's stealing, and it's not the way to make friends and influence people in your chosen community (in this case, fandom).
How are they different, you ask?
Let us pretend, for the sake of this discussion, that I have made a vid using footage from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. No one, not ONE PERSON, is looking at this vid and thinking "Goodness, tzikeh has created a television show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Where did she get the money to pay Sarah Michelle Gellar?" However, they may think "Goodness, look at the spectacular editing job tzikeh has done - what a clever juxtaposition of scenes - and what an appropriate song choice - and ooh, look at that color filter effect she chose to illustrate that point!"
The work I have done is recognizable because of what it is not - it is not the casting, the lighting, the direction, the costuming, or any other element of the television show. My audience knows what I have done and what I have not done instantly. They know that Buffy is not a result of my work, or my creativity. My work is on display because it is presented against the background of the show itself.
Now, if someone takes my clever juxtaposition of scenes and my editing and my color filter effect (which, if the vid is any good at all, took me no small amount of time), puts another song over it instead of the one I chose, substitutes a clip at the beginning and the end, and then makes it available for viewing as their vid - they have stolen my work. My work is now mistaken for their work. They are presenting my creativity as their own, and that's plagiarism. Stealing, for those who don't like words with more than two syllables.
To reiterate - the fact that vidders use footage from a television show to make vids does not IN ANY WAY mean that using edited footage from another vidder's work in your own vid is acceptable or even excuseable. In other words - "You steal from the show in the first place, so you don't have a leg to stand on" is not an argument that holds water. Vidders do not steal anything. IT IS NOT THE SAME THING. Deal with it.
