Using book pages in a video

[sooty]

Hello,

In a video if I use images of book pages with and without text 'commenting' on how I find it distasteful, is this infringement?

As in a 5 or so full pages of a book with the relevant parts highlighted and occasional text commentary in a slide show type fashion on a video platform?

[AndyJ]

Hi sooty,

The means of reproduction is not particularly important, so making a video would be much the same as doing this in text form. Since what you want to do is for the purpose of criticism or review it should be covered by the exception (see section 30 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988) for that very purpose. Just make sure that you provide a citation for the author and the book or books involved. If this isn't covered in the commentary, include a credit at the beginning or end of the video.

[sooty]

Hi sooty,

The means of reproduction is not particularly important, so making a video would be much the same as doing this in text form. Since what you want to do is for the purpose of criticism or review it should be covered by the exception (see section 30 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988) for that very purpose. Just make sure that you provide a citation for the author and the book or books involved. If this isn't covered in the commentary, include a credit at the beginning or end of the video.

Hi Andy, thanks for replying. After looking at the link you kindly posted I notice there is a part (1ZA, C) which says "the extent of the quotation is no more than is required by the specific purpose for which it is used". As I said earlier some pages i included full pages because I thought the context surrounding the specific points i highlighted was fairly important. Is this OK or should I blur everything but the highlighted parts specifically?

[AndyJ]

Hi sooty,

Yes, one of the principles of fair dealing is that no more of the original work is used than is strictly necessary for the purpose, in this case for critiicism. So yes if you are able to blur out the unwanted parts, or at least throw them out of focus, that would be better. However if that proves too difficult from a technical point of view, highlight the relevant passage or words, and that should mean that all the other parts of the page are merely incidentally included, and this would be permissible under another exception, found in section 31. There is case law which would support this type of incidental inclusion: Fraser-Woodward v BBC and Brighter Pictures Ltd.

If you need to show the context, a quick shot of the whole page might be OK, since it is unlikely that the viewer could read the whole of the text, but it would be better to describe the context separately, say in voice-over.