Lesson 14: Does giving credit let the crew use the song? Educator guide

Credit is not permission

The story: A song that carries the scene

It is Friday night, and Caio is editing the crew’s festival film. It is a short recap made from crew footage and interviews. At 9:40 p.m., he saves a rough cut.

For 20 seconds, a released song plays under the setup montage. Caio pitched it up slightly, and the song sets the mood for the whole scene. The cut borrows one more piece. From 1:40 to 1:46, it shows a six-second clip downloaded from a TikTok post. That post used Stitch, TikTok’s remix tool. The crew did not make the song or the clip.

At 10:02 p.m., Mateo texts the crew chat: “We’ll credit them in the caption. Post tonight?” Caio writes back one question: “Credit gets us what, exactly?” Mateo does not have an answer.

Your role is to fill in the rights log before the film goes up.

Two different questions

Attribution is naming the person who made a work, such as a song, a photo or a video. It answers the question “Who made this?” A license is permission from a rights holder to use a work under specific terms. It answers a different question: “Did the owner say yes to this use?” Mateo’s caption would give attribution. It would not give the crew a license.

In Lesson 8, you learned that a disclosure is a clear statement that tells people about a relationship or fact they would want to know. Naming the artist is honest, like a disclosure. But being honest about where something came from is not the same as having permission to use it.

Pitching the song up does not make it the crew’s song either. “It’s still their song, just a little higher,” Caio says.

The crew starts a rights log. It lists each borrowed piece, who made it, where it came from and whether there is permission. Right now, both rows say “permission unknown.” Mateo thought Stitch covered the TikTok clip. But Stitch works inside TikTok. A festival film is somewhere else.

Caio has two backup plans. The crew can use a library track with clear terms, or Dec can record a drum loop the crew owns. Either way, they post Sunday.

When the music went silent

In February 2024, a licensing deal between Universal Music Group and TikTok ended. Videos using songs by artists like Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo went silent (NPR, February 1, 2024). Nobody forgot to credit Taylor Swift. The license was the problem.

Fair use is a part of U.S. copyright law that allows some uses without permission, judged case by case with four factors (U.S. Copyright Office, updated July 2026).

Key terms in this passage

Attribution

Attribution is naming the person who made a work, such as a song, a photo or a video.

License

A license is permission from a rights holder to use a work under specific terms.

Fair use

Fair use is a part of U.S. copyright law that allows some uses without permission, judged case by case with four factors.

Disclosure

A disclosure is a clear statement that tells people about a relationship or fact they would want to know.

Real sources cited

• NPR, “TikTok removes music from UMG artists, including Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift,” February 1, 2024. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• U.S. Copyright Office, “Fair Use Index,” July 2026. Open the source (opens in a new tab)

What a caption credit can and cannot do

The story: Rough cut, 9:40 p.m.

Caio edits freelance projects and runs film nights at the bookshop, so he knows what a song can do to a scene. On Friday night, he is cutting the crew’s festival film, a short recap built from crew footage and interviews. His rough cut, saved at 9:40 p.m., has a problem he likes too much. From 0:18 to 0:38, a released song plays under the setup montage, pitched up slightly, and it carries the whole sequence. From 1:40 to 1:46, the cut also uses a six-second clip downloaded from a TikTok post made with Stitch, TikTok’s remix tool.

At 10:02 p.m., Mateo texts the crew chat: “We’ll credit them in the caption. Post tonight?” Mateo wants the film online tonight. Caio replies with a question: credit gets them what, exactly? Mateo admits he does not have an answer.

Caio’s reasoning is simple. Twenty seconds of the song carries the montage, and that is exactly why he cannot just borrow it and hope. He wants to check the license before anyone posts. Your role is to fill in the rights log before the film goes up.

Credit, permission and the rights log

Attribution is naming the person who made a work, such as a song, a photo or a video. It answers “Who made this?” A license is permission from a rights holder to use a work under specific terms. It answers “Did the owner say yes to this use?” Mateo’s caption answers the first question and says nothing about the second.

Lesson 8 taught you that a disclosure is a clear statement that tells people about a relationship or fact they would want to know. Attribution is honest in the same way. It tells viewers where something came from. But honesty about the source is not permission to use it. Changing the pitch does not change ownership either. As Caio puts it, the song is still theirs, just a little higher.

Lesson 1 taught you to trace a clip to its original source. The rights log does that for every borrowed piece. It has columns for the element, who made it, where it came from, the permission or license and the date. Row 1 is the setup-montage music from a streaming download, permission unknown. Row 2 is the six-second clip from a TikTok creator, permission unknown. Mateo assumed Stitch covered the clip. Stitch permission works inside TikTok, and the festival film is not on TikTok, so the row stays “unknown” until the crew finds out.

Fair use is a part of U.S. copyright law that allows some uses without permission, judged case by case with four factors. The factors are the purpose of the use, the nature of the original work, the amount used and the effect on the original’s market (U.S. Copyright Office, updated July 2026). Lesson 12 taught you to compare facts against a legal standard, and fair use works the same way. No number of seconds is automatically safe. A short clip can count against fair use if it is the most recognizable part of a song.

Caio’s plan avoids the question entirely if the license falls through. The crew can use a library track with clear terms, or Dec can record a drum loop the crew owns. The film goes up Sunday.

When platforms and courts decide

When Universal Music Group’s licensing deal with TikTok expired in February 2024, videos using its artists’ songs, from Taylor Swift to Olivia Rodrigo, went silent (NPR, February 1, 2024). Credit was never the issue.

The Supreme Court tested fair use in 2023. It ruled against the Andy Warhol Foundation, finding that Warhol’s new version of a photograph was not fair use when it served the same purpose as the original (NPR, May 18, 2023).

Key terms in this passage

Attribution

Attribution is naming the person who made a work, such as a song, a photo or a video.

License

A license is permission from a rights holder to use a work under specific terms.

Fair use

Fair use is a part of U.S. copyright law that allows some uses without permission, judged case by case with four factors.

Disclosure

A disclosure is a clear statement that tells people about a relationship or fact they would want to know.

Real sources cited

• NPR, “TikTok removes music from UMG artists, including Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift,” February 1, 2024. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• NPR, “Supreme Court sides against Andy Warhol Foundation in copyright infringement case,” May 18, 2023. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• U.S. Copyright Office, “Fair Use Index,” July 2026. Open the source (opens in a new tab)

Four factors and a rights log

The story: Post tonight, or check first?

At 9:40 on a Friday night, Caio, 24, saves a rough cut of the crew’s festival film. The recap mixes crew footage and interviews, and one choice makes it work. From 0:18 to 0:38, a released song, pitched up slightly, plays under the setup montage. A second borrowed element sits later in the timeline. From 1:40 to 1:46, the cut includes six seconds downloaded from a TikTok post that used Stitch, the app’s remix tool. Neither piece belongs to the crew.

Mateo, who likes turning “we should” into a plan, wants the film online that night. At 10:02 p.m., he proposes a solution that feels responsible: credit the artists in the caption and post. Caio’s answer is a single question. What does the credit get them? Mateo admits he does not know.

By the next day, Mateo has worked out why his instinct was wrong. He remembers when Universal Music Group’s deal with TikTok ran out and videos went silent. Nobody had forgotten to credit Taylor Swift. He also rethinks the clip. He had figured Stitch covered it, but Stitch is for TikTok, and this is a festival film.

Your role is to fill in the rights log before the film goes up.

Separating attribution, license and fair use

Attribution is naming the person who made a work, such as a song, a photo or a video. A license is permission from a rights holder to use a work under specific terms. The two answer different questions, “Who made this?” and “Did the owner say yes to this use?” A caption credit supplies the first and not the second. Lesson 8’s disclosure, a clear statement that tells people about a relationship or fact they would want to know, is a useful comparison. Like attribution, disclosure makes a post more honest. Neither one grants rights.

The rights log applies the Lesson 1 skill of tracing material to its source. For each element, it records who made it, where it came from, the permission or license and the date. Both current rows read “permission unknown.” The log also shows what the crew does not yet know, including what the TikTok creator agreed to when posting.

Without a license, the remaining path is fair use, a part of U.S. copyright law that allows some uses without permission, judged case by case with four factors. The factors are the purpose of the use, the nature of the original work, the amount used and the effect on the original’s market. The analysis resembles Lesson 12’s reasoning from precedent: you set the facts of your use against a standard and weigh each factor, rather than looking for a single rule. For the song, the purpose is setting a mood in a recap, the original is a released creative recording, the amount is 20 seconds and the effect on the market is uncertain. Caio’s pitch change does not transform the purpose. No duration is automatically safe, and a short excerpt can weigh heavily if it is the most recognizable part.

Caio’s backup plans take the question off the table: a library track with clear terms, or a drum loop that Dec records and the crew owns. The film goes up Sunday instead of Friday.

Licensing, courts and professional norms

The UMG and TikTok dispute showed how platform licenses work. When the deal expired in February 2024, videos using UMG artists’ songs went silent (NPR, February 1, 2024). Researchers later studied what the roughly three-month blackout meant for creators, artists and the platform (Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, March 5, 2025).

The Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in the Warhol case shows how the purpose factor works. The Court ruled against the Andy Warhol Foundation, finding that Warhol’s version of a photograph was not fair use when it served the same purpose as the original (NPR, May 18, 2023). The Copyright Office publishes a one-page summary of the facts and holding (U.S. Copyright Office, 2023). Its Fair Use Index stresses that fair use is decided case by case and that a use for education is not automatically fair (U.S. Copyright Office, updated July 2026).

News organizations treat the issue as an ethical one too. The RTDNA code states, “Using someone else’s work without attribution or permission is plagiarism” (RTDNA Code of Ethics, June 11, 2015).

Key terms in this passage

Attribution

Attribution is naming the person who made a work, such as a song, a photo or a video.

License

A license is permission from a rights holder to use a work under specific terms.

Fair use

Fair use is a part of U.S. copyright law that allows some uses without permission, judged case by case with four factors.

Disclosure

A disclosure is a clear statement that tells people about a relationship or fact they would want to know.

Real sources cited

• NPR, “TikTok removes music from UMG artists, including Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift,” February 1, 2024. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, “What Happened When TikTok Songs Went Silent for Three Months,” March 5, 2025. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• NPR, “Supreme Court sides against Andy Warhol Foundation in copyright infringement case,” May 18, 2023. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• U.S. Copyright Office, “Andy Warhol Found. for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith (Fair Use Index summary),” 2023. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• U.S. Copyright Office, “Fair Use Index,” July 2026. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), “RTDNA Code of Ethics,” 2015. Open the source (opens in a new tab)

Rights clearance for small productions

The story: Two borrowed elements

Caio, 24, is editing the crew’s festival film, a short recap of footage and interviews. His Friday rough cut, saved at 9:40 p.m., includes two elements the crew did not create. The first is 20 seconds of a released song, pitched up slightly, running from 0:18 to 0:38 under the setup montage. It sets the tone for the scene. The second is a six-second clip, from 1:40 to 1:46, downloaded from a TikTok post that used Stitch, the platform’s remix feature.

At 10:02 p.m., Mateo, 22, proposes a common solution. The crew will credit the artists in the caption and post that night. Caio responds with the question the case is built around. What does the credit get them? Mateo concedes he has no answer. By Saturday, he has revised his view on both elements. He recalls the 2024 TikTok music blackout, in which no one had failed to credit Taylor Swift, and he recognizes that an in-app remix permission may not extend to an off-platform screening. He moves both items to the rights log as unknowns.

Your role is to fill in the rights log before the film goes up.

Three concepts, three questions

Rights clearance begins by separating concepts that everyday language merges. Attribution is naming the person who made a work, such as a song, a photo or a video. A license is permission from a rights holder to use a work under specific terms. Fair use is a part of U.S. copyright law that allows some uses without permission, judged case by case with four factors. Attribution answers who made something. A license answers whether the owner agreed to this use. Fair use asks whether the law permits the use anyway.

The case builds on earlier skills. From Lesson 1, the rights log traces each element to its source, maker and permission status, with a date. From Lesson 8, a disclosure, a clear statement that tells people about a relationship or fact they would want to know, shows how honesty and authorization differ. Crediting an artist is a kind of disclosure, and it transfers no rights. From Lesson 12, the method of weighing facts against a legal standard applies to fair use, which works through factors rather than bright lines.

Applied to the song, the four factors are the purpose of the use, the nature of the original work, the amount used and the effect on the original’s market. The purpose is atmosphere in a recap, the original is a creative recording, the amount is 20 seconds and the market effect is uncertain. A pitch shift does not change the purpose, and the Copyright Office is clear that no number of seconds is automatically safe. Even a short part can weigh against fair use if it is the most recognizable part of the work. The TikTok clip raises a separate question, the scope of the creator’s consent. Stitch permission operates inside TikTok. Whether it reaches a downloaded clip in a film shown elsewhere is exactly what the rights log marks as unknown.

Caio’s decision reflects professional practice. When clearance is uncertain and the deadline is soft, substitute. The crew can use a library track with clear license terms or a drum loop recorded by Dec that the crew owns, and publish Sunday.

Markets, doctrine and codes

Platform licensing is contractual and can change without notice to users. When UMG’s agreement with TikTok expired in February 2024, videos using its artists’ recordings went silent (NPR, February 1, 2024). Coverage explained the licensing structure behind the songs creators use (Christian Science Monitor, February 6, 2024), and later research examined the effects of the roughly three-month blackout (Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, March 5, 2025).

The Supreme Court’s decision in Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith emphasized the first factor. A new work used for substantially the same purpose as the original was not fair use, despite its artistic changes (NPR, May 18, 2023; U.S. Copyright Office summary, 2023). The Copyright Office’s Fair Use Index notes that educational purpose does not make a use automatically fair (U.S. Copyright Office, updated July 2026). Its Circular 1 explains what copyright covers and who owns a song or a recording (U.S. Copyright Office, September 2021).

Professional codes align with the law. PRSA members commit to “preserve intellectual property rights in the marketplace” (PRSA Code of Ethics, October 2000). The AIGA standards bar designers from accepting instructions that involve “infringement of another person’s property rights without permission” (AIGA Standards of Professional Practice, no date listed). The RTDNA code calls use “without attribution or permission” plagiarism (RTDNA Code of Ethics, June 11, 2015). Note the “or.” Attribution and permission are separate obligations, which is the lesson Mateo learns.

Key terms in this passage

Attribution

Attribution is naming the person who made a work, such as a song, a photo or a video.

License

A license is permission from a rights holder to use a work under specific terms.

Fair use

Fair use is a part of U.S. copyright law that allows some uses without permission, judged case by case with four factors.

Disclosure

A disclosure is a clear statement that tells people about a relationship or fact they would want to know.

Real sources cited

• NPR, “TikTok removes music from UMG artists, including Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift,” February 1, 2024. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• The Christian Science Monitor, “How Universal's licensing pullout is affecting music on TikTok,” February 6, 2024. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, “What Happened When TikTok Songs Went Silent for Three Months,” March 5, 2025. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• NPR, “Supreme Court sides against Andy Warhol Foundation in copyright infringement case,” May 18, 2023. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• U.S. Copyright Office, “Andy Warhol Found. for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith (Fair Use Index summary),” 2023. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• U.S. Copyright Office, “Fair Use Index,” July 2026. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• U.S. Copyright Office, “Copyright Basics (Circular 1),” September 2021. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), “PRSA Code of Ethics,” 2000. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• AIGA, the professional association for design, “AIGA Standards of Professional Practice,” No date listed. Open the source (opens in a new tab)
• Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), “RTDNA Code of Ethics,” 2015. Open the source (opens in a new tab)