ANTHONY SOLORZANO, HOST:

Before Tik Tok videos took control of pop culture, people used to brag about knowing the information they got off of headlines. We live in a world where society used to say, “I read an article about it,” even though everyone knew what they really meant was, “I read a headline about it.” When I started writing a weekly column for [BLEEP SFX] called Pseudo Pop, where I give real-life events context using meaningless pop culture.

HOST: I realized that articles would work better as videos. But can I use the video clips without having one of the big movie studios send their goons to hand me a cease and desist order with a big fat lawsuit? I talked to Mike Heisten, the senior legal counsel for the Student Press Law Center to help me understand the laws.

MIKE HEISTEN: It depends. I mean, the general rule for copyright law is if you know, if you didn’t create it, and if you don’t own it like with a license or something like that, you generally have to ask permission. There’s a big exception called the fair use exception that allows it, it’s really important for journalists to know about it because it allows journalists and specifically to use, you know, limited amounts of otherwise copyrighted material when they’re doing so for, for news reporting or commentary or criticism, things like that.

HOST: You know what that means?

[AMALGAMATION OF COPYRIGHTED AUDIO]

HOST: Wait, but how long can the clip of copyrighted material be before the man tells me to stop?

HEITEN: There’s not like a 25-second rule or something like that. When it comes to fair use, you’re allowed to use just enough to kind of convey the point that you need to convey. But without using too much that it kind of impedes on the market value of the original.

HOST: If that’s the case, all is fair in fair usage.