Fair use & claims

Annotated is for commentary: quoting a small part of someone’s work so you can respond to it. Every excerpt is built to stay short, credited and useless as a substitute for the original.

Built-in limits

• Text excerpts are 100 words at most. Longer arguments are threaded one excerpt at a time.
• Audio and video excerpts are 90 seconds at most.
• Video is reduced to 240p, well below the original’s quality.
• Every annotation needs at least 15 words of commentary. There are no bare reposts.
• Every excerpt links to the original, at the exact moment for audio and video.

The same limits are enforced by the extension, the server and the database.

Filing a claim

Every annotation page has a File a claim button. Rights holders, their agents and anyone else with a concern can use it. A person reviews each claim against the four fair-use factors: the purpose of the use, the nature of the work, the amount excerpted, and the effect on the market for the original.

While a claim is reviewed, an annotation may be hidden. The decision (upheld or not) is published on the claim’s status page with a short explanation, and the claimant is emailed. Upheld claims hide or remove the annotation.