Fair Use Policies

In producing your own persuasive messages, it's very important to understand the law and potential ethical or legal ramifications of your decisions.

A helpful website on 'fair use' policies can be found here.  A central message of 'fair use' is that, under special but common circumstances, you can use information from other sources without permission.  However, if you plan to use anything produced by another person that extends beyond a short quote (in which you reference the quoted material), then you should seek written permission from the producer of this information.

When videotaping other people, some populations will not be supported by most universities.  In particular, these are populations where the individuals may feel coerced to give their permission (e.g., individuals in jails) or where the individual may not be able to provide their consent (e.g., individuals from a wide range of clinical populations). For healthy adults not be coerced,  you can video tape them, but you must have their written permission.  Importantly, you should make sure they see the video and understand that you will be making it public, and then get their permission to do so.  Given this rule, you are free to use actors to get your point across.