Can we use short clips from the movie in my own video?

[Halie0201]

Our church is going to make some videos for gospel preaching. And we find some good gospel videos such as this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzmCUV6LDWc

We also noticed that there are many short clips in this video from movies or other copyrighted works. So, is it a copyright infringement if we just use very short part(like 5-8 seconds or even shorter) from long movies in our own gospel videos to describe our opinion?

Hope someone can help me!!^_^

[AndyJ]

Hi Halie,

It is possible use short clips of copyright works, to make a sort of montage, but there are some rules you need to follow.

• • First of all don't use any more than is strictly necessary to make the point.
  
  • Do not use part of the source film which might be considered to be the essence or heart of that film. To give you an example, if you recall the film Planet of the Apes, the shot of the Statue of Liberty sticking up out of the sand was considered to be a 'substantial' element of that story, and this is the sort of thing to avoid.
  
  • And lastly you must credit the films you use. This can be done at the end and doesn't have to be particularly prominent. And it would probably be a good idea to also say something like: "Extracts from the following films have been used here as permitted by the fair dealing exception in section 30(1ZA) of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988".

This what that sub-section actually says:

(1ZA) Copyright in a work is not infringed by the use of a quotation from the work (whether for criticism or review or otherwise) provided that—

• (a) the work has been made available to the public,
  
  (b) the use of the quotation is fair dealing with the work,
  
  (c) the extent of the quotation is no more than is required by the specific purpose for which it is used, and
  
  (d) the quotation is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement (unless this would be impossible for reasons of practicality or otherwise).