Seriously I doesn't know where else I should been asking this, other than paying a lawyer. I've been googlin, but all I get is websites that stream / download movies (both legal and illegal). I've tried all kind of keywords. Anyway, if you plan to make a movie / short film, can you legally show a website in it? I mean, if you want to show somone reading e-mail, can you show Yahoo / Hotmail / GMail sites in your movie? Or it will consider IP / copyright infringement? For example, let say it's about a nerd that develop game on the internet, and part of it is communication via gamedev.net, reading news, articles and getting involved in the forum. Is it OK to use gamedev.net logo, or do I have to create a fake website? Anyway, above is just an example. I already contacted the website contact person but it've been 4 days and still not getting any reply. I know they might pass the e-mail to their lawyer first. It just that the short film competition end date is getting near...

The standard procedure is to ask for permission. Find a rep's contacts for the company involved and send them a question. Be sure to either include the script (and outline the section where the site is being used) or describe the context of the shot where their website is being shown in great detail, including the nature of the film, the purpose of the shot, who is using the computer and what the overall tone of the film is. Do not lie/embellish in your email.

Generally speaking, it'll be much faster to get approval from smaller companies and in many cases it's even faster to make a dummy mock-up of a page.

In 99.9% of the cases you won't need to pay anything as it's nothing more than product placement (if you are or you have a good producer you might even negotiate some compensation the other way around - but do not count on this or even play this card if you have something to lose or are playing a commercial game (eg you're going to gain considerable public attention/money with your film) or you'll risk losing their approval or a potential future relationship). In most cases the companies involved simply want to know that you're using their stuff and that it's not in an immoral or malicious context that goes against their policies/could hurt their business (think ethics and business ethics here). If you surprise any company in a negative way, rest assured, they will sue you. And you'll lose.

Over all: just be nice to people and people will be nice to you.

Thanks. The problem is that the website is central to the story, it's a one minute short and the website is 33% of the time, and *is* the main idea of the story.

I mean, it's like two people dating on facebook, and finally get married. and facebook will be featured 33% of the time.

I know the website owner (not facebook - it's just an example) taking their time because:

a) their image ( as in logo, etc, etc)
b) other people image ( i think they taking their time here).

you see, a website these day is like a public place. all kind of faces will be there. the thing with real public place is that you can flip out handy cam and take pictures / movies. it is *public place*. but if you take a shot of public website (for example -face book- not only there will be your and your other actor/actress face, but many other people.

i think if worst come to worst, I'll just censor out other people images (it's a one minute independent short, i censor whatever I want), and leave only the website image under fair use - i'm the user (in real life), and I spend money ( in a sense) on it.

it about how i use the site and how it change me (and the world) for good.

it's not about the prize (I might donate it anyway), I just want to build my portfolio, and show be belief - which is the website is important.

For that kind of detail I suggest you build your own dummy mock-up of a page and have it do only what is essential to the story. And use your friends' faces. Let's be honest - no one's going to sue you for having their picture in a pretty much obscure short (it is obscure, right? :D), but it's just not very nice and law does require you to have either written or otherwise verifiably permission from everyone "who is identifiable" in your film. Since, as I understand, this is not a documentary you're making, you're in shallow water and should take every bit of care to not expose anyone outside your cast/circle of friends as part of a professional effort.

BTW - what you can do - eg no one will really be able to/take the time to sue you unless you cause (indirect) damage to them - is to take the source for the page in question, eg Facebook or whatever and swap out the logo and images (make sure to also remove ads!). You can toy around with some colors as well. It's not as good as making your own unique one, but I'm pretty sure it's not illegal. Do not do this if the company has told you that they do not want to be associated with your project.

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Anyway, if you plan to make a movie / short film, can you legally show a website in it? I mean, if you want to show somone reading e-mail, can you show Yahoo / Hotmail / GMail sites in your movie? Or it will consider IP / copyright infringement?

I thought the question would be, can you get them to pay you for doing that. It's advertising (unless the characters comment that the site is complete crap.)

Quote: Original post by visitor

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Anyway, if you plan to make a movie / short film, can you legally show a website in it? I mean, if you want to show somone reading e-mail, can you show Yahoo / Hotmail / GMail sites in your movie? Or it will consider IP / copyright infringement?

I thought the question would be, can you get them to pay you for doing that. It's advertising (unless the characters comment that the site is complete crap.)

That's a big lol, unfortunately - no one's going to pay you jack unless you're guaranteeing wide-coverage promotion or certain revenue. In other words, you'd need to be making an AAA class movie for that - something that actually has a budget (for reference - traditionally anything below ~$1000 is considered no budget and anything less than $60k is considered low budget). If you can get someone to pay you otherwise, it'll rather be in the form of charity for which you'd probably have to promise them other perks, eg an official logo in the beginning/end of your film or an explicit mention of them as your sponsor at festivals, etc.

Companies use the same scheme to get almost free publicity through schools by paying a certain number of students' tuition fees, which makes the student and the school happy because it seems like such a large sum, but really is nothing when compared to how much the company would have to pay for advertising to get an equal level of exposure (a logo at all events where the school is present, a mention by the student when participating in olympiads and contests, etc). On the other hand, if you can't guarantee that your film is going to end up at festivals then you're better off getting your money from foundations and such. That is - you can always try as that won't hurt anyone, but you'll most likely be wasting their time and your energy.

Actually it'a a half documentary, half made up story. Like I've said, I use the website in real life, and spend money on it. What I do with it is a central part of the story. It was a true story. But to keep thing short, and interesting, the in between is filled with drama. the webiste is going to be 33% of the short (a one minute short) and 75% of the story is based on a true story.

So, I'm doing it with everyone censored out,except the site itself.

Still, I'm sending them with a 2nd e-mail.