FanArt & Copyright?

[Player4]

How's the situation?
Obviously, a lot of FanArt uses at least parts of Movies/Promo images/Wallpapers that are made by/under copyright of the publishing studios.

Wikipedia says:
American copyright law allows for the production, display and distribution of derivative works if they fall under a fair use exemption. Generally small excerpts from larger works that have no financial impact on the original and that are done for non commercial purposes could be considered a fair use (depending on a number of circumstances). American courts also typically grant broad protection to parody and some fan art may fall into this category. This is a legal gray area, which is not related, and legality can often not be determined until after litigation has concluded.

So, if I make FanArt for Formula One (where the rights holders remove any youtube video within minutes) i might get into trouble if I release them to the public, right?

[szsori]

Originally Posted by Player4

So, if I make FanArt for Formula One (where the rights holders remove any youtube video within minutes) i might get into trouble if I release them to the public, right?

Correct. If in doubt, email them and ask them for permission. Derivative works tend to be acceptable as well, but only if you significantly modify the image. I'd suggest trying to find alternate sources for quality images or else use a number of images combined and modified to make one large derivative image.

On the other hand, most studios/leagues/networks/etc don't care if you use the images because you're promoting their show/events/etc. Releasing video clips on YouTube is another matter since that (supposedly) dilutes ad revenues because viewership of the actual event is reduced.