DISCLAIMER: WE ARE NOT ATTORNEYS, AND THE INFORMATION BELOW IS IN NO WAY INTENDED TO GIVE YOU ANY LEGAL ADVICE. THE INFORMATION BELOW IS SIMPLY FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.
In lieu of our recent lawsuit with Universal Music Group, we have decided to create this page to better educate our members about what makes a video copyright infringing. Members that post or upload copyright infringing content to Bolt could be held accountable and possibly forced to pay monetary damages to the copyright owners if taken to court. We have created some guidelines and tips to help you determine what would be considered a copyright infringing piece of content that should NOT be uploaded or posted to Bolt.
We respect the rights of copyright owners, and we ask that you please do so as well by not uploading their videos or content to Bolt without their permission. You can still watch your favorite artists by visiting your favorite artists websites.
How to identify if your content is infringing someone else's copyrights:
The best way to identify whether the content you are attempting to upload to Bolt is in violation of copyright infringement is to ask yourself if it is completely 100% original, without any portion (video or audio) of the content you are uploading has any third party content that you did not create in it.
For example, if you are uploading a video you created to Bolt, and the entire video was created by you, even the audio portion of the video, your video is not infringing on someone else's copyrights. However, if you choose to upload a video that is playing a sound recording in the background of the video, and that sound recording is owned by a record label, your uploaded video would be infringing on the record label's copyrights.
Examples of Commercial Copyrighted Content
If you have uploaded a video that has been removed from Bolt for copyright infringement violation, and you were not sure why this has happened, it is likely the video could have been a commercially copyrighted piece of content. Below is a lists some examples of copyrighted content that is prohibited from being uploaded to Bolt:
- TV Shows
- Sitcoms, sporting events, news broadcasts, cartoons, dramas, etc.
- Network TV shows, Cable TV Shows, Pay-Per-View Events, etc.
- Movies and movie trailers
- TV Commercials
- Slide shows including photos you own of you and your friends, with music owned by a record label playing in the background
- Music videos, examples are the ones you would see on MTV, BET, or VH1
- Videos of Live Concerts, even if you recorded it with your own camera
- Unless the copyright owners at a concert grant you permission to video tape or record their event, it is likely that its in violation to their copyrights for you to record the event with your own camera
What is "Fair Use"?
As indicated above, it's clearly a violation of the copyright owners for you to upload their copyrighted content without their written permission. However, there are instances in which the use of very short clips of copyrighted videos or songs may be legal even without permissions from the copyright owners. This is known as the "fair use" principle of copyright law.
It is very difficult, subjective, and complex when attempting to determine whether a particular use of a short video clip or song of a copyrighted work qualifies as "fair use". For this reason, its often very difficult trying to determine if the use of "fair use" was appropriate or not. If the copyright owner disagrees with your interpretation of fair use, the copyright owner may choose to resolve their dispute in court.
If you would like to learn more about "fair use", below are a few links to websites that discuss it in more detail. Bolt does takes not responsibility for your decision to use the "fair use" principle, and therefore does not advise against or for the use of "fair use" in your videos.
Make Bolt Better!
Whether you encounter glitches, can't figure something out, or want to encourage brilliant new features, there's a feedback forum for everyone:
For those looking for quick answers, there's also Bolt FAQs.
Should all else fail, contact our friendly support team:
bolthelp@boltinc.com.
