‘Tiger King’s’ Ace Ventura Cameo Tests Use of Swiped Movie Clips

A lawsuit against the creators of Netflix’s “Tiger King” over seconds of film taken from “Ace Ventura 2" reveals the tension between protecting copyrights on existing creations and using clips as building blocks for new ones.

The dispute carries implications for when it’s fair to harness snippets from other works in new creations. Courts often call harm to the market of the original work the most critical factor in fair use analyses, and a robust clips-licensing marketplace can—but doesn’t always—tip that factor to make it more difficult to claim fair use.

Case law directly analyzing clips isn’t plentiful, because licenses ...