Q: I want to know how are people able to create gifs from copyright content and not be sued?
I see gifs on social media all the time. Since the music industry doesn't allow copyrighted songs on video people make on youtube, how can we create gifs and not be sued?
A:
You've asked two different questions here:
(1) why aren't people who create gifs from copyright content sued and
(2) how can you create gifs and ensure you aren't sued.
To respond to the first question: someone has to enforce their interest in copyrighted content; if the person who owns the content doesn't find infringement or doesn't care about that particular infringement, they don't sue. Does Dan Harmon want to sue your grandma because she thinks Pickle Rick or Mr. Meeseeks are cute and posts a gif on facebook? Probably not. So, why isn't everyone who creates a gif with infringing content sued? Probably because the copyright holders haven't found the infringement, don't care, or it's not worth the money to sue, among other reasons.
To give you an adequate response to your second question would take up more space than I have available here. How can you avoid a lawsuit while creating gifs? A few options are: (a) don't use copyrighted content, create everything yourself; (b) get permission to use any copyrighted content you use to create gifs; (c) use content in the public domain; or (d) (not a wise course at all) infringe and hope you don't get sued.
*Note: I am not your lawyer, nothing herein should be construed as legal advice, and I'm certainly not advocating copyright infringement.
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