Fair Use as Civil Right Workshop at the SCMS Annual Conference

On March 12th, I attended the Society for Cinema and Media Studies' Annual   Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana to sit on a panel for a workshop called Fair  Use as Civil Right: Expansion of Expression for Scholars, Teachers, Learners. 

  With me on the panel were Peter Decherney from University of Pennsylvania, who acted as the panel's chair, Michelle Glaros from Centenary College of Louisiana, and Francesca Coppa from Muhlenberg College.  Attendees included film professors, vidders, and film archivists, and the workshop was intimate and engaged.  Our discussion covered fair use in a variety of fields including journalism, new media, fan videos, and education.   

Francesca Coppa spoke about the Online Video community, and how crucial fair use is for vidders who as fans are looking to create new content with original footage and audio from, for example, their favorite television show.  She also talked about the important work being done by the Organization for Transformative Works, which you can check out here.

Peter Decherney gave the group some legal background behind copyright law and fair use.  He also explained the importance of the DMCA exemptions, even giving the audience first-hand accounts of his experiences at DMCA exemption hearings. 

Michelle Glaros talked about her experience teaching fair use to production students.  She gives her students documents like the Code of Best Practice in Online Video and the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use as resources, and guides them through exercises in class such as the ones featured here, with video examples to help hone students' eyes for well-constructed fair usages. 

The panel also discussed how Codes like the ones offered by the Center and those available on the SCMS website are the best way for a creator or an educator to understand safe harbor fair use decisions, as there are too few cases of either litigation or legislation to allow either of those to give guidance on what is considered standard practice within a field.

It was so fascinating to talk with so many different people who engage with fair use in different ways, and to hear from accomplished professionals about what they see as fair use challenges and successes in their respective fields.  Thank you to SCMS for a wonderful conference, and for allowing a platform for such an engaging discussion!