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AMVs In Copyright Presentation

At the annual Entertainment Media Expo this week in Las Vegas, Lawrence Lessig, professor of law at Stanford University and the author of Free Culture, made a presentation arguing that the courts need to redefine / better define "Fair Use."

As an example, he showed the attendees anime music video clips, which may be seen as contravening multiple copyrights. "My aim was to demonstrate the creativity that digital networks are enabling, even though this creativity is also a kind of 'piracy'." Lessig explained to Anime News Network, "I was trying to challenge the assumption about what 'piracy' is here."

Lessig stated during his presentation "My plea is that we recognize the need to dial back the mentality of control. Copyright laws have and should be used to promote the progress of a market, not protect the profits of a small and declining cartel.”

Under existing copyright laws, AMVs contravene the copyrights of the anime and the music used in the video; unless the creator of the AMV has permission from the copyright holders to use said material, said material is part of the public domain, or the material is an original creation of the AMV creator.