Animated gifs sinful?

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Humility

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Is it a sin to insert a gif into a text message or a social media post if it contains a copyrighted image? For example, would it be a sin to attach a gif with Snoopy or some other copyrighted character, an image of a celebrity, or a movie scene, etc? (Assuming the images themselves do not have anything else inherently sinful about them, of course.)
 
I don’t see how.

It’s not like your pretending to be Charles Schultz.

You’re not passing Snoopy off As your own work, and you aren’t making money from sending a GIF of snoopy.
 
Well, I feel the same way from watching things on YouTube. I actually won’t do it anymore. Not even scenes from movies because I’m afraid I’m breaking copyright laws and sinning.
 
You mean the things that are literally on my I phone text menu keyboard? Why would that be sinful?
 
There are two things to consider here.

First, the laws of a country and the laws of God are not the same thing. Just because something is a violation of secular law, that doesn’t mean it is necessarily a sin. Otherwise, Christianity itself would have been considered sinful in the early days of the Roman Empire.

Second, even from the perspective of secular law, things like animated gifs and clips in YouTube videos likely fall under the category of “Fair Use,” meaning they would not be violations of copyright law, at least in the U.S.

You can read more about Fair Use here: More Information on Fair Use | U.S. Copyright Office
 
Or songs on YouTube? Those are usually the whole thing.

I worry that it could be a violation of the 7th commandment.
 
Humility said:
Or songs on YouTube? Those are usually the whole thing.

I worry that it could be a violation of the 7th commandment.
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Frequently, those songs are published on YouTube by the record companies themselves, and they are compensated by advertising revenues based on the number of people who view their videos.

Those companies own the copyrights, and are authorized to publish the songs on whatever medium they choose.
 
I guess maybe one should try to only watch ones that have actually been posted by the music companies. When you have autoplay enabled and YouTube sets up automatic playlists, some of the songs in the playlist might not actually have been published by the companies but unless you go look at the screen each time it plays, you won’t know. It’s unfortunate.

I found out that legally, you are not culpable for watching something posted on YouTube if it turns out the copyright is being violated. But, I was wondering if the Church considers us morally culpable, and if so, how serious it is.
 
It really sounds like you’re struggling with scrupulosity. You shouldn’t ask these kinds of questions here. Seek help offline with your priest

-Fr ACEGC
@camoderator
 
Humility said:
I guess maybe one should try to only watch ones that have actually been posted by the music companies. When you have autoplay enabled and YouTube sets up automatic playlists, some of the songs in the playlist might not actually have been published by the companies but unless you go look at the screen each time it plays, you won’t know. It’s unfortunate.

I found out that legally, you are not culpable for watching something posted on YouTube if it turns out the copyright is being violated. But, I was wondering if the Church considers us morally culpable, and if so, how serious it is.
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YouTube can identify whether a song is copyrighted even if it is not uploaded by the record company, and they notify the copyright holder to see what they would like to do with the content containing the song.

See here to learn more about their Content ID system: How Content ID works - YouTube Help

So the copyright holder can still receive payment from their work, even if they are not the uploader.
 
That makes me feel better.

They probably don’t do that with full length television shows or movies though. The copyright holder probably has to issue a take down complaint for those.

Still, what you said makes me feel a lot better. Thank you.
 
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