Sight and Sound in the Legal Writing Classroom: Engaging Students Through Use of Contemporary Issues

Using the Fair Use Act as the basis of a research problem done in conjunction with YouTube music videos presents a variety of ways to demonstrate the range of situations in which the Fair Use Act might apply. Karin Mika discusses ways to force students to think in depth about various scenarios while comparing and contrasting them. As an example, when comparing two similar musical compositions using a Fair Use factor analysis, one need only concentrate on the notes and the various choruses in the songs. However, when combining a song with a video, the nature of the composition changes. The song itself may be similar to another song, but the message of the video in combination with the song itself might be vastly different than a second video in which the use of portions of a musical composition is being challenged.