Recently entertainment lawyer Gordon Firemark made a couple posts on Fair Use rules for creators on social media, podcasts, and films. The second one dealt with music sampling on content created for those platforms.
One of the common issues he addresses is the minimal amount of sampling you can do while still being able to claim Fair Use.
Spoiler: The answer is zero.
Fair Use Myths That Get Creators in Trouble
Let’s debunk a few persistent myths:
“If I change it a little, it’s transformative.”
Adding commentary or critique might be transformative. Just slapping on filters, cropping, or re-uploading isn’t.
“I only used 10 seconds, so it’s fair use.”
Nope. There’s no magic number of seconds or percentage that makes a use automatically fair.
“I gave credit to the original creator.”
Nice gesture, but credit isn’t a legal substitute for permission.
“I’m not making money, so it’s fine.”
Non-commercial use helps your case but doesn’t guarantee fair use. Plenty of hobbyists have faced takedowns.
He explains that Fair Use covers a pretty narrow set of circumstances. It is perhaps most important to understand that there is no right of Fair Use of other people’s work. It is a defense against an accusation of infringement.
Firemark goes into detail about Fair Use and consequences of infringement claims in his two posts. The safest options are either licensing/getting permission from the rights holder or entirely using royalty free content.
