5.39 V. De Minimis Uses

• Library: NY Counseling Content Providers in the Digital Age 2010

V. DE MINIMIS USES

The idea behind the de minimis defense is that if a copyrighted work appears on the screen for so short a period or is so obscured that it is barely noticeable, there should be no liability. The question, of course, becomes: “How short is short enough—and how obscured is obscured enough?” Since the Ringgold case in 1998 when the Second Circuit held that a poster hanging in the background on a set wall seen for a total of 26 seconds in a sitcom was neither de minimis nor a fair use, many...