I want to make a short silent film to show for money to about 30 people charge them 5 dollars apiece. Can I ?

Question

it is comprised of short clips from different movies and personal footage and stuff like that. Always under 30 seconds and the message of the film is different than the messages of the individual films. I'm making a kind of collage where I cut out different letters from a magazine and make a message. except i'm using video. does this fall under fair use and if it does not am i supposed to send parts of one dollar to each movie? that's like 90 movies each one would get 2 cents.

Answer 1

What you are describing sounds a lot like sampling, which is common in the music industry. The bottom line is that if you use works that other people created to generate profit for yourself you must have their permission. The movies you are using are protected by copyright law and are the intellectual property of others. You will be in an extremely actionable position if you use their work for your gain without their permission.

Answer 2

This probably would not fall under "fair use."

From the law: "the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."

Your example doesn't seem to fall under any of the conditions they list.

Answer 3

Only if you get permission to use the clips from the copyright owners. Be prepared for them to tell you NO.