Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Documentaries: Fair Use

Here's the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use of copyrighted materials, which was released on November 18th.

Signatories include the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, Independent Feature Project, International Documentary Association, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, and Women in Film and Video (Washington, D.C., chapter).
Besides being a guide to assist documentary filmmakers, the Statement is intended to be used in court, see the Statement's FAQ.
"Codes and statements of best practices are usually the first kind of evidence that courts look to in deciding that something is 'fair use', so what filmmakers believe is fair and reasonable is definitely important."
The Statement was developed with assistance from the Center for Social Media (CSM) in the School of Communication and the Program on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest (PIPPI) at the Washington College of Law, as well as financial support from The Rockefeller Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
The Center for Social Media also has a useful chart for analyzing whether a work is in the public domain, a nontrivial exercise.
Rodney D. Ryder

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