I am an event videographer who specializes in dance performances. I recently discovered excerpts of several of my copyrighted videos on YouTube, obviously posted without my permission, and with no credit given to me. I used the process YouTube provides to have them removed as a violation of my copyright. It worked.
Then I contacted the owner of the dance school from which all of the incidents occured, and informed her that this was not OK and she needed to tell her students not to do that. The school itself had used some of my video, ill informed and ill advised. I told the owner that I would be happy to produce clips for her at no charge to promote her school (a not-for-profit) and they would be up to my standards, with my full permission.
I also informed the parents at the school that I would be happy to produce audition videos for their kids for a fee. I do this as a service, and my work is very high quality. I provide a dozen copies of a 10 minute audition video for $250, which includes one on-site visit at their studio to do some custom shooting. I will also compile segments of my raw performance video to highlight their dancer for audition purposes-- as long as the dance school/company/choreographer give their permission to use it, and this isn't typically a problem.
I think most of you would agree that $250 is CHEAP for what they're getting, and might even criticize me for giving away the store. But I think it is a reasonable fee, and it is a valuable service for those who would rather send audition videos all over the country than travel there in person for an audition.
SO.... Here's my issue. A parent asked me to post a clip of her daughter on YouTube. I said I would be happy to for a fee. Later she came back and told me her husband is a copyright lawyer, and he said they should be allowed to use a clip from my DVD that I copyrighted and sold to the general public under the Fair Use exception of the copyright law.
I have already checked out this link to the Fair Use section of US Copyright Code-- very helpful by the way:
U.S. Copyright Office - Fair Use
SO HERE IS MY QUESTION: Is it fair use for someone who acquired one of my copyrighted performance DVDs to extract and use a portion of that performance to post on YouTube or produce their own audition DVD without my permission?
I think YouTube's service agreement protects me, and it's easy for me to police and remove. I am more concerned about the DVDs.