Fair Use in South Park and MediaDescription: Fair Use In Media

Essay by willreilandCollege, UndergraduateB+, October 2012

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Fair Use in South Park and Media

In examining the matter of fair use in modern media and Brownmark Films, South Park rightfully asserts fair use laws in their parody of "What What (In the Butt)." In agreement with the initial verdict and similar fair use examples like Tosh.O, fair use growing dependence makes it harder for small-scale content creators to receive proper recognition.

When discussing the issue of fair use, it is important to understand exactly what it means. Fair use is a copyright standard based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism (Wilson, 2010). When lawsuits are held on the legitimacy of fair use, rulings are guided by 4 factors. These factors include the purpose and character of your use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion taken and lastly, the effect of the use upon the potential market (Wilson, 2010).

These 4 factors are what quickly dismissed the fair use claims made against South Park.

In the case of Brownmark and South Park, rulings were determined rather easily and quickly. The court felt the support for fair use was so strong that it didn't even need a trial (Masnick, 2011). Judge J.P. Stadtmueller concluded that South Park's use of the video acted as legitimate form of fair use being it a clear and transformative parody (Anderson, 2011). Though the defense of Brownmark was considered to be rather weak, fair use rulings without trial are found to be quite rare (Masnick, 2011). This can be considered quite controversial but given the facts of the case this is rather fair in my opinion. South Park re-created their own parody of the video with...