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School Project... Help?

gamerz

gamerz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 2, 2006
479
0
Hello,

I am making a movie for a school project... The topic it is on is the English Civil War. Most of the filming and acting has been done... One thing that I was thinking of doing was getting a few short clips of some movies and putting them into my movie to save some filming... I know this might infringed upon copyright laws and all that, but is there a way to do it? Specifically, I wanted to get the scenes: "Monty Python-Self Defense Class" and "Monty Python-Witch" (The Witch scene is from the holy grail).

What I wanted to do was to download these from somewhere... and then import it into Imovie 0'8.

Thanks!
 
gamerz said:
Hello,

I am making a movie for a school project... The topic it is on is the English Civil War. Most of the filming and acting has been done... One thing that I was thinking of doing was getting a few short clips of some movies and putting them into my movie to save some filming... I know this might infringed upon copyright laws and all that, but is there a way to do it? Specifically, I wanted to get the scenes: "Monty Python-Self Defense Class" and "Monty Python-Witch" (The Witch scene is from the holy grail).

What I wanted to do was to download these from somewhere... and then import it into Imovie 0'8.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

yes, it does infringe on the company's copyright and "all that." In the US, in certain circumstances, you can use a certain percentage or time allotment (whichever is less), without prior permission, under the Fair Use Guidelines.

However, breaking the copy protection on those DVDs sends you into a gray area between the DCMA and Fair Use. I wouldn't touch that for a school project.

You're better off not risking your grade by picking something you have rights to.
 
I was assuming that....

Well, thanks for informing me!
 
ingenious said:
yes, it does infringe on the company's copyright and "all that." In the US, in certain circumstances, you can use a certain percentage or time allotment (whichever is less), without prior permission, under the Fair Use Guidelines.

However, breaking the copy protection on those DVDs sends you into a gray area between the DCMA and Fair Use. I wouldn't touch that for a school project.

You're better off not risking your grade by picking something you have rights to.
Click to expand...

If the purpose of using a few seconds from a Monty Python movie is to comment on it. then he is Ok. He might say "common prception of a trial is this <film clip here> but in reality is was different and whent like this..." He'd be OK if the clip was short enough (as in 3 to 5 seconds)

You can get around the whole DCMA problem by going out and buying a VHS video tape version of the movie. The tapes have no copy protection.
 
My friend already has the movie, I believe I do too... Is there any way then to upload that onto my imac and then to cut out a scene and use it? If he bought the movie would it still be considered copyright?
 
gamerz said:
My friend already has the movie, I believe I do too... Is there any way then to upload that onto my imac and then to cut out a scene and use it? If he bought the movie would it still be considered copyright?
Click to expand...
Yes, it is still copyrighted when you purchase the movie. Copyright means that your legal options for making copies are very limited. As others mentioned, you can, in certain cases, use clips for specific purposes under fair use. I'm not copyright expert and only use material that I KNOW I am allowed to use -- either something I shot/recorded, or something I've been specifically allowed to use for the purposes of the project I'm working on.
 
gamerz said:
My friend already has the movie, I believe I do too... Is there any way then to upload that onto my imac and then to cut out a scene and use it? If he bought the movie would it still be considered copyright?
Click to expand...

Is the movie on TAPE. Tape is not copy protected so there is no DCMA issue about circumverting it. If you have the tape then it's easy. Transfer the segment you need to your mini DV camera using a suitable analog cable (S-video, RCA plugs, whatever..) Once you have it on DV tape you are set.

But do be carefule. You can only use a SHORT segment (not the whole scene) and only if it is for a few purposes like so that you can comment on it.
 
I say as long as you cite the movies in the credits or wherever you should be fine...it is for academic use and that opens up a lot of options for you...as long as your not using it to make money or show to thousands of people i doubt anybody will say anything about it...the fact that it is just for academic use pretty much makes sure nothing will happen as far as copyright is concerned.
 
bclayton88 said:
I say as long as you cite the movies in the credits or wherever you should be fine...it is for academic use and that opens up a lot of options for you...as long as your not using it to make money or show to thousands of people i doubt anybody will say anything about it...the fact that it is just for academic use pretty much makes sure nothing will happen as far as copyright is concerned.
Click to expand...

not true. copyright still applies in educational settings. you are, however, as i said and as ChrisA said, allowed to use a few seconds of it in your project as long as you are only commenting on it and it does not make up the majority of your project.

i compete in a state technology competition (Kansas Department of Education's KSTL Digital Media Competition) every year, and I'm telling you if your teaching knows anything about copyright, (s)he'll rip you to shreds if you overstep the bounds.

please read up on the US fair use policy before you do anything, for your grade's sake! :eek:
 
i am not saying the teacher won't do anything...i am just saying i doubt anybody will complain copyright wise if it is just a few clips here or there...forgot to mention it in my last post but it would probably be a good idea to check with your teacher before including any such footage
 
He (my teacher) said it was fine... As long as I put the sources in the credits and they get some acknowledgment.
 
Now that the whole copyright issue is sorted out... how would I get the clip that I want from the DvD into Imovie??? I don't really want to spend money on a program to do this...
 
use the program handbrake to rip the dvd into the format you want drag into imovie and cut the section you want
 
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