showing short excerpts from a youtube video to supplement a storytime program

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• September 12, 2018 @ 8:17amjnova says:

  I have a staff member who would like to use content from youtube during her storytime program.  I seem to recall that we need to look for videos that have no copyright disclaimer or are licensed under a creative commons license for public performance.  If one of those two criteria exists, is it ok to use the video during storytime without contacting the owner? It has been awhile since staff asked this question and I wanted to be sure I was working with the most current advice/info.
• September 13, 2018 @ 7:32amCarrie says:

  My opinion is that storytime is an activity whose social benefit is so high, a fair use argument is strong.  Think of all of the other things, librarians have already done to make story time even better - enlargements of illustrations, adding music, etc.

  While the youtube video is protected by copyright, by including it in storytime, you have no impact on the market for the work. One could argue that depending on how you are using the video - perhaps in a new way not originally intended by the rights holder - that the use is transformative. 

  I would not be concerned about copyright disclaimers.  The CC license specifically mentioning public performance would be nice, but the use is fair regardless.

   

  Good luck!

  -Carrie

   

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