Blog Entry #3: Mashups and Copyright Law

Example # 2 - A Fair(y) Use Tale
1. What is this mashup trying to communicate? Is it technical experiment, social or political commentary, a comedic parody, or an abstract work of media art?


This mashup is trying to generally outline how the American copyright comes into effect. The author, Professor Eric Faden explains how it is forbidden to claim work from others as “yours”. This mashup can be an example of a comedic parody and an abstract work of media art Professor Eric Faden creates a compilation of many Disney clips and puts them together to create a narrative story.



2. Did its creator follow or break copyright laws in its production? 

The creator, Eric Faden did not break any type of copyright laws because of several reasons. Firstly, in the beginning of the video, he states that the video is not associated with or by Disney. Secondly, in the video, Disney gave Eric permission to use it’s clips. Moreover, the video also gave credit to Disney in its involvement of the movie clips. Hence, the creator did not break any copyright law



3. Do you think that mashup like this requires copyright permission? Why or why not.
Mashups like this one should require copyright permission because Eric Faden wasn’t the original creator of the Disney flims. If Eric didn’t give any credit, then he would most probably get into legal trouble. Even though Eric is designing his own way of portraying a lesson, credit should be given out so that others know where that work is from.