Clipping someone else's video in Nepal is not automatically legal. The Copyright Act 2059 (2002) lists only a few narrow permitted uses, and criticism, review and commentary are not among them. Your own filming, script and edit are protected from the moment you make them. Borrowed music and footage still need permission.
Key takeaways
- Nepal's Act has no general "fair use" defence and no exception for commentary or parody.
- Sec. 5: registration is not required. Your original video is protected without any filing.
- Sec. 17 allows a short citation with the source named. That is the closest thing to a clipping rule.
- Paying an editor or musician does not transfer their rights. Sec. 24 requires a written agreement.
- A takedown is a platform decision. A court case goes to the District Court, within three months of discovery.
- Copyright does not protect a channel name. That needs trademark registration at the Department of Industry.
Is clipping legal in Nepal?
It depends on what you clip and why. The Act nowhere says short clips are fine. It gives a closed list of uses that need no permission, and everything outside it needs consent.
The nearest provision is Sec. 17, which allows "some portions of a published work" to be cited for fair use if you name the source. That supports a brief, attributed extract inside your own work.
It does not support a full song under a dance video or a long film scene. If the borrowed part is the attraction, you are republishing, not citing. Whether one particular clip crosses the line is a legal question about your facts, so if the video is monetised, ask a lawyer first.
Does Nepal have anything like American fair use?
No. The phrase appears once in the Act, in Sec. 17, and means citing a portion with the source named. It is not the four-factor test American creators discuss.
Notice what is missing. The Act never mentions criticism, review, parody or commentary. Labelling a video "commentary" changes nothing.
What does the Act allow without permission?
The permitted uses sit in Sec. 16 to Sec. 23. Reading them together is the fastest way to see why a reaction video is not automatically safe.
| Section | What it permits | What it does not cover |
|---|---|---|
| Sec. 16 | Copying some portions of a published work for personal use | Publishing that copy to an audience |
| Sec. 17 | Citing some portions of a published work, naming the source | Using the extract as the main attraction |
| Sec. 18 | Limited use for teaching and learning, with attribution | A monetised channel outside a classroom |
| Sec. 20 | Reporting current events, naming source and author | Entertainment built on another's footage |
| Sec. 21 | One backup copy of a computer program | Sharing or reselling software |
| Sec. 23 | Public display of a work or a copy | Re-uploading the work online |
Almost every exception is tied to a purpose, not a length. Trimming a clip to fifteen seconds does not bring it inside one. Most also require you to name the source and the author, and a credit buried in a description may not satisfy that.
Can I use news footage in a video?
Partly, and the distinction matters. Sec. 4 puts some things outside copyright altogether: a thought, news, a method of operation, a concept, a principle, a court judgment, an administrative decision, a folksong, a folktale, a proverb and general data.
So the news itself is not owned, and nobody can stop you reporting that an event happened in your own words. The broadcaster's footage of it is protected. Sec. 20 permits reproduction for informing the public about current events if you name the source and author; entertainment built on news footage sits outside that purpose.
What do you own in your own video?
Quite a lot, and none of it needs a filing. Sec. 5 states that registration "shall not be required to acquire the right". Your footage, script, voice-over, thumbnail and edit are protected as soon as they exist in a fixed form.
Sec. 7 gives the owner the commercial rights: reproduction, translation, revision, arrangement, sale, rental, public exhibition, public performance, broadcasting and communication to the public.
Sec. 8 adds moral rights: being named as the author, and objecting to distortion. One upload can hold several works with different owners, so keep raw footage, project files and export history as the record of which parts are yours.
Do guests and performers have their own rights?
Yes, and creators rarely plan for it. Sec. 9 gives a performer control over the public presentation of their performance, its reproduction, first transmission, rental and amendment.
Once a performer lets their performance be built into an audiovisual work, they cannot exercise those rights again over it, though they keep the right to be identified and to protect their reputation. In practice that means a release form for a guest, session musician or dancer, signed before the shoot rather than after the video does well.
Who owns the video when an editor or musician helps?
Not necessarily you. Sec. 6 makes the author the first owner, with limited exceptions such as work made at an organisation's direction or for payment. Paying an invoice is not the same as taking ownership.
The clean answer is a document. Sec. 24 says the owner may transfer all or any economic rights "by making a written agreement." A verbal deal leaves the position open to argument.
Moral rights behave differently. Under Sec. 8 they cannot be transferred during the author's life. A full assignment of the money rights still does not let you strip a creator's name off their work.
How do you clear music and footage before you post?
Treat clearance as a step in the edit, not a reaction to a strike. Work through the upload element by element and write down each answer.
- List every outside element. Songs, clips, photographs, illustrations, fonts, templates, stock footage, guest contributions.
- Find the real owner. The uploader of a clip is often not the rights holder. A record label, studio or agency usually is.
- Read the licence, not the label. "Royalty-free" is a payment model, not blanket permission.
- Match the licence to the video. A personal-use licence does not cover a sponsored upload.
- Replace anything unresolved. Record your own audio, or cut the clip. The unresolved element is the one that costs you.
- Save the proof. Keep the licence, invoice or permission beside the final export.
Music causes the most trouble, because a recording and the composition beneath it can have different owners. Our guide to music copyright and royalties in Nepal explains those layers.
How long does copyright in a photograph last?
Less time than most people expect. Sec. 14(5) protects a photographic work and a work of applied art for twenty-five years from the year it was made, not the author's life plus fifty.
It cuts both ways. An old photograph may already be free, and your own product photography has a shorter clock than your scripts.
Still, check the year of creation, and remember a modern scan or retouch can carry its own rights. See how long copyright lasts in Nepal and the guide for photographers, artists and designers.
What about AI-generated clips and thumbnails?
Treat it as unsettled and read the tool's terms. Nepal's Act was written around human authorship, and we have seen no official Nepali statement on who owns a model's output.
Two separate risks sit here: what the licence lets you do commercially, and what the model was trained on, are different questions from ownership. Our guides on AI-generated content and copyright in Nepal and whether AI can own copyright set out what is established. For a campaign, get advice.
What can you do when someone copies your video?
Two routes exist and they do different jobs. A takedown is the platform applying its own terms: fast, private, able to remove, block or demonetise.
It cannot award compensation, and it does nothing about a copy on a website elsewhere. That is where the legal route matters: Sec. 35 gives the District Court jurisdiction, tried under the Summary Procedures Act 2028. Sec. 27 provides a fine, imprisonment or both, heavier for a repeat offence, plus compensation, and infringing copies and equipment can be seized.
How long do you have to act?
Three months. Sec. 38 requires a case to be filed within three months of the day you learn of the infringement. The clock starts when you find the copy, not when it was uploaded.
Waiting to see whether a copycat grows can cost you the claim. Note the date, save the evidence the same day, take advice while the window is open.
Should you register your best work with the Registrar's Office?
It is optional, and for a serious channel still worth doing. The Nepal Copyright Registrar's Office takes voluntary applications and issues a dated record naming the work and the claimant.
It does not create the copyright, which you already have, and it settles no contract dispute. What it gives you is one official document instead of a folder of screenshots. Register selectively: a signature series, a course, a documentary or a music library, not every short video. See copyright registration in Nepal and what the certificate proves.
Common mistakes
- Believing a clip under a certain length is safe. The Act sets no such limit.
- Treating credit as permission. Attribution is a condition of some licences, never a substitute for one.
- Quoting American fair use. That test is not Nepali law; Sec. 17 is narrower and requires a named source.
- Leaving the editor or composer agreement verbal. Sec. 24 wants it in writing.
- Filming a guest without a release. Sec. 9 gives performers their own rights.
- Sitting on an infringement. Sec. 38 gives you three months from discovery.
- Trying to protect a channel name with copyright. Names are a trademark question.
What does this look like in practice?
This is an illustration, not a real case. A Kathmandu food channel films Newari dishes, writes its own reviews, and pays a musician for a theme tune on a verbal deal. The footage and script are the channel's; the tune is not, because nothing was written down.
For one recipe video the editor adds thirty seconds of a hit song and a television clip, crediting both in the description. Neither is cleared: length does not help, and a credit line is not permission.
The fix is unglamorous: swap the song for a licensed track, cut the clip or seek consent, and sign a one-page assignment with the musician. Later another channel re-uploads the video with the same thumbnail. The creator saves the URL, screenshots and date that day, files a platform complaint, and asks a lawyer about the court route while the Sec. 38 window is open.
How do you protect a channel name or logo?
With a trademark, not copyright. Copyright covers the artwork inside a logo, but a name, handle or slogan is a branding question. Nepal is first-to-file: the earliest complete application usually wins, not the earliest user.
Marks are registered at the Department of Industry under the Patent, Design and Trademark Act 1965, one application per NICE class. A creator selling courses, clothing and ad space trades in more than one.
Check the name in our Nepal trademark database of 71,500+ marks published in DoI bulletins, then ask our trademark registration team which classes you need. Handles and domains are covered in our guide to locking down a brand online.
In short
Clipping is not legal in Nepal because a clip is short or labelled commentary. The Copyright Act 2059 protects your own filming, writing and editing automatically, and allows a narrow set of uses of other people's work: personal use, a cited extract with the source named, teaching and news reporting.
Everything else needs permission in writing, guests need a release, and an infringement carries a three-month clock. The Act's text is on the Nepal Law Commission website.
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Not sure whether one clip, one track or one guest appearance is a problem? Send us the details of the video and we will tell you what needs clearing and what needs a lawyer.
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