Legal Definitions - transformative use

In copyright law, transformative use refers to using copyrighted material in a way that significantly changes its original expression, meaning, or message. This means the new work doesn't just copy the original; it adds new purpose, character, or understanding, making it essentially a new creation. A use is considered transformative if it alters the original material with new aesthetics, new insights, or a new purpose, rather than merely superseding or repackaging the original work. This concept is a crucial factor courts consider when determining whether an unauthorized use of copyrighted material qualifies as "fair use" and is therefore not an infringement.

• Scenario: A Digital Artist's Collage

  An artist creates a digital collage that critiques consumerism. To do this, they take small, recognizable fragments from several famous advertising images and logos, distort them, re-color them, and combine them with original artwork and text to form a new, cohesive piece. The original ads were designed to promote products, but in the artist's collage, their fragments are repurposed to comment on the pervasive nature of advertising and its societal impact.

  This is a transformative use because the artist didn't simply reproduce the advertisements. Instead, they took elements from them and integrated them into a new work with a completely different message and artistic purpose—from promotion to social commentary. The original meaning of the ads is altered and given new context within the collage.
• Scenario: Educational Software for Language Learning

  A company develops an interactive language learning application. As part of its curriculum, it includes short clips (a few seconds long) from popular foreign films. These clips are not shown for entertainment, but are specifically used to demonstrate pronunciation, vocabulary in context, and cultural nuances, with interactive exercises built around them. The app then provides detailed explanations and quizzes based on these snippets.

  This represents transformative use because the film clips, originally created for cinematic entertainment, are repurposed into educational tools. Their new function is to facilitate language acquisition and cultural understanding, rather than to tell a story or entertain. The clips are integrated into a new interactive learning experience that adds significant educational value and a new purpose.
• Scenario: Historical Documentary Using News Footage

  A documentary filmmaker creates a film exploring the evolution of political rhetoric over the past century. To illustrate a point about media coverage during a specific historical event, the filmmaker incorporates a 15-second segment of a vintage television news broadcast. The original broadcast's purpose was to deliver breaking news to a contemporary audience. In the documentary, however, this footage is analyzed by historians, juxtaposed with other archival material, and used as evidence to support a broader historical argument about media bias and public perception.

  This is a transformative use because the news footage, originally intended for immediate reporting, is now being used for historical analysis and critical commentary within a new narrative. Its purpose shifts from informing about current events to serving as an object of study and illustration within a scholarly context, contributing to a new message about historical interpretation.