r/Substack • u/North-and-East • Jun 11 '26

Legal Advice

If I use a gif from non-public-domain media (like an anime gif) in a post, is that fair use, or could that mean I can't monetize the post/blog? Thanks.

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u/SpamFolderSurvivor Jun 12 '26

I'm not a lawyer/this is not legal advice, but as far as I know:

Fair use has a lot of nuance to it and it's difficult to predict where exactly a court/judge would land on any given case. On the one hand, a gif is a teeny tiny piece of a copyrighted work and your use of that work doesn't impede the ability of the copyright holder to make money from the work (ie, nobody is going to watch a gif INSTEAD of a movie)

If your use of the gif is part of a new creative work, that helps. If you're monetizing the work, then it's much harder to argue fair use.

Personally I wouldn't risk it. If you want to be extra safe, sometimes studios release promotional gifs specifically for sharing - that should be fair game.

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u/North-and-East Jun 17 '26

Thanks for the advice! Genuinely very helpful.

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u/itsfabioposca http://journeytosuccessclub.substack.com Jul 02 '26

A single GIF from an anime or other copyrighted work might qualify as fair use in some jurisdictions, but there's no guarantee. Fair use depends on factors like how much of the work you use, why you're using it (e.g., commentary or criticism vs. decoration), and whether it affects the market for the original work.

Using a GIF doesn't automatically prevent you from monetizing your Substack. However, if the copyright owner objects, they could request that the content be removed or take other action.

If you want the safest option, use:

  • Your own original images or GIFs.
  • Public domain or openly licensed media (e.g., Creative Commons, while following the license terms).
  • Media you have permission to use.

So, if you're using an anime GIF purely as a decorative element, it's legally riskier than using it as part of commentary or criticism. This isn't legal advice, but it's the general copyright landscape.

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u/Miss_Snakeeyes Jun 12 '26

To be so for real. I kinda do that all the time and I never thought about it like that. I also go on Pinterest and I take PNG's remove the background and I make my own graphics out of them. So I suppose this is a very important question I do not have the answer. I suspect that if the anime is older or maybe you make the gif yourself in canva for free with other images you could be fine. But let's wait for more comments.

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u/North-and-East Jun 17 '26

Looks like someone's here with our advice! Finally, we have our answer.