To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to appeal the removal of my video for containing copyrighted material. My video’s use of copyrighted material is clearly covered under each of the four pillars of Fair Use, as outlined below.

As a student at a non-profit university, the purpose of my video is for the analysis of film form and teaching others. In the video I presented an analytical claim that [THESIS]. My video’s purpose is primarily non-commercial rhetorical criticism.

I have only used published, publicly-available film clips. Given the context of my video essay, film analysis, the use of these clips was essential for a visual understanding of my argument.

According to Purdue OWL, “reproducing only a small part of a copyrighted work is more acceptable than using an entire work.” Fair Use doesn’t specify a precise time length for how much copyrighted work can be present in a video, but my video, which contains many clips, is less than 10 minutes long. Represented as a portion of [most heavily used primary source], 10 minutes is a mere (10/total runtime) of the complete work.

By using short, less than 2 minute, clips, it’s unlikely that this video will have any market effect on the films it references. If anything, my video essay encourages viewers to purchase and watch the films that are analyzed.  Realistically, the video will only be seen by a small audience of the 22 students in the class.

When all four pillars of Fair Use are considered together, my video is not only protected by Fair Use but an example of the kind of great work Fair Use makes possible. Please continue to support Fair Use by unblocking my video’s content.

Sincerely,

 

[Your name]

Undergraduate

The University of Texas at Austin