23 About Finding Video Content on the Web

Before You Begin

1 Walk Through a Digital Video Production

See Also

94 Download the Movie Maker Creativity Fun Pack

The Internet is full of videos from all over the world that you can watch, download, edit, and redistribute ”although you cannot do all those things with all the videos that are online. In spite of the wealth of video files, many are copyrighted for specific use. Rarely do you ever actually own a video or audio file you've downloaded. Instead of owning the file, usually you only own a license to use it in some way. Be sure to read the fine print on the site where you download to discern what you are allowed to do with the file.

Several sites exist that offer royalty-free video content. You can use such royalty-free video as stock footage in your own videos when you need it. A search on the Internet for "royalty-free video" will turn up sites that offer downloadable content, as well as content available on CD-ROM and DVD that you can order.

KEY TERM

Royalty-free ” A label that indicates you can own a license to use a file any way you want, or that you are free to use the file in a specific, predefined way.

Stock footage ” Video depicting a common scene or event, such as a mountain range or children playing, that you might want to use as filler video in a movie.

Sites such as Fotosearch.com offer stock video footage you can purchase for use in your own movies.

WEB RESOURCE

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/moviemaker/videos/samples

While we're on the subject of video on the Web that you can use in Movie Maker, consider visiting Microsoft's Movie Maker Web site for sample movies produced with Movie Maker. You might be surprised at Movie Maker's flexibility and power.

Microsoft offers videos that demonstrate the power of Movie Maker.

More and more major studio-made movies will begin appearing on the Web with digital rights management features included. Depending on who offers the movie and the rights they allow you based on how you acquired it (bought or copied ), the DRM features will determine what you can do with them. If Movie Maker refuses to import a video file you downloaded from the internet, even though that file plays perfectly in Windows Media Player, the file probably has DRM controls that disallow you from editing or using the video inside another video, so Movie Maker refuses to import the file.

If you have newsgroup access, you can often find video files uploaded for others to see and use categorized by subject. Search through newsgroups that have multimedia in their name for possible videos you can download and use. Use Outlook Express, bundled with Windows, to access newsgroups after you learn from your Internet service provider (ISP) how to set up newsgroup access.

KEY TERM

Newsgroups ” Electronic bulletin boards , categorized by name and function, where users upload and download messages and files.