Political cartoons in free nonfiction articles for web. Fair use?

[Dostrich]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
New York

I am currently working on a website who's purpose is to do research and educate the public about controversial US government programs (ex: CIA offshore prisons, expensive Pentagon weapons research) in an attempt to raise awareness and cause more public discussion of possibly unethical spending of tax dollars.

The main feature of the site is in-depth heavily cited nonfiction articles (that we write) which will incorporate government documents and youtube clips.

In addition to this, we'd like to show political cartoons next to certain paragraphs to further explain specific topics and bring some humor into sometimes dark subjects.

The articles and all other content will be freely available to the public and the site won't have advertising nor are there plans to sell anything, however we'd like to have an optional donation system set up.

We are aware that licenses to re-publish most of the cartoons we wish to use are for sale on sites such as cartoonistgroup, however we're just 2 college students and don't have the money to pay $1000 a year per for each article (and that's assuming each article has 5 cartoons.)
If the site does however receive donations this would of course change.

I've read into copyright and fair use law but am still unsure if we're allowed to use the political cartoons in this manner.

Do you think this sounds like fair use?
Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

 

[quincy]

Dostrich, the preview feature on this site tends to erase posts when submitted after previewing. Not sure why. You can try again by editing your post or by using your backspace key to recover your previously written post. Please be sure to include the name of your state. Thanks.

 

[Dostrich]

I noticed and fixed it within a few minutes, thanks tho.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
New York

I am currently working on a website who's purpose is to do research and educate the public about controversial US government programs (ex: CIA offshore prisons, expensive Pentagon weapons research) in an attempt to raise awareness and cause more public discussion of possibly unethical spending of tax dollars.

The main feature of the site is in-depth heavily cited nonfiction articles (that we write) which will incorporate government documents and youtube clips.

In addition to this, we'd like to show political cartoons next to certain paragraphs to further explain specific topics and bring some humor into sometimes dark subjects.

The articles and all other content will be freely available to the public and the site won't have advertising nor are there plans to sell anything, however we'd like to have an optional donation system set up.

We are aware that licenses to re-publish most of the cartoons we wish to use are for sale on sites such as cartoonistgroup, however we're just 2 college students and don't have the money to pay $1000 a year per for each article (and that's assuming each article has 5 cartoons.)
If the site does however receive donations this would of course change.

I've read into copyright and fair use law but am still unsure if we're allowed to use the political cartoons in this manner.

Do you think this sounds like fair use?
Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

You will want to license for use the political cartoons. If this is outside your budget, perhaps you can find some students in your college who can create cartoons to go with your articles in exchange for a credit line.

 

[Dostrich]

You will want to license for use the political cartoons. If this is outside your budget, perhaps you can find some students in your college who can create cartoons to go with your articles in exchange for a credit line.

Thanks for your reply. What do you think are the chances of success of contacting the artists via email and asking for thier permission?

 

[quincy]

Thanks for your reply. What do you think are the chances of success of contacting the artists via email and asking for thier permission?

What are the chances of success in contacting the artists who created the political cartoons you wish to use? I don't know.

The copyrights in the political cartoons may no longer be held by the artists who created them. The publications where the cartoons appeared may now own the rights. You may have some searching to do, in other words, to find the current copyright holder.

If you do reach the cartoon creator, and the creator still holds the rights to the cartoon and gives you permission to use the cartoon to illustrate your articles, it is smart to have this permission in writing and signed by the copyright holder, to prevent a dispute arising in the future.

The following link connects you to the Center for Media and Social Impact site, which provides an excellent look at fair use of copyrighted material and its application in scholarly works. Scroll down to "Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Scholarly Research in Communication" to access the article and the pdf file. You may find the information helpful in your work: http://www.cmsimpact.org/fair-use/related-materials/codes/codes-best-practices-fair-use-scholarly-research-communication

Fair use is one of the trickier aspects in copyright law because there is no clear definition of what fair use is and what it is not. There are only guidelines.

Good luck.

 

[quincy]

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