copyright youtube copyright-notice digital-content
The copyright issue of a movie review on YouTube
<p>I want to review one part of a movie (less than 15 min of it) in my channel in YouTube. I will review the part from a different angle, interpret it differently from a psychological and philosophical point of view. Would YouTube make my video demonetized for copyright issues? Should I show the part in smaller size, I mean in screen-split form or picture-in-picture form?</p>

<p>A review is a classic occasion for fair use under US law, for fair dealing under UK law, and for other exceptions to copyright under the laws of a number of other countries, including many of the EU countries. However, such exceptions usually require that no more of the copyrighted work is used than is needed to demonstrate and support the reviewer's points.</p>
<p>It is usual in a review of a film or video to show only very brief clips, usually a few seconds or a minute or so at a time. There is no specific limit on how long an excerpt may be used in a review without the review constituting copyright infringement, this is judged on a case-by-case basis. But if the reviewer actually includes a full fifteen-minute clip, that might be held to be too much.</p>
<p>Note that the reviewer can, and often will, <strong>discuss</strong> the entire film. But it is not usual to &quot;show&quot; the entire film. Just a a book review normally quotes only a few paragraphs, even as it discusses the entire book, a film review normally includes only short clips of scenes significant to whatever points the reviewer makes.</p>
<p>In US law, a significant issue is whether the review can &quot;function as a substitute for the original&quot; (17 USC 107). That is, whether people are likely to watch the review and come away feeling as if they had seen the entire film, and so need not watch the original. If sop, it is more likely to be considered an infringement.</p>
<p>I can only speak to what might be an infringement of copyright under the law of various countries. I cannot speak to YouTube policies or how such policies might be applied. But my understanding is that YouTube only applies &quot;demonetization&quot; to things that it considers clearly copyright infringements, although sometimes it is overly cautions in such decisions.</p>
