AU Receives Grant from Rockefeller Foundation

American University Receives Grant from Rockefeller Foundation to Research the Relationship Between Arts Practices and Intellectual Property Policies in a Digital Age






Contact: Maralee Csellar, AU Media Relations, 202-885-5952

Agnes Varnum, Center for Social Media, 202-885-3107




WASHINGTON, DC (Sept. 24, 2003) – The problems that filmmakers face in getting and controlling rights for their creative work and the consequences for cultural creativity are the focus of a new research project at American University. The Rockefeller Foundation will fund the study.




American University’s Center for Social Media and the Washington College of Law Program on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest received an $88,000 grant to conduct a yearlong research project on the relationship between arts practices and intellectual property policies in a digital age. The project titled, Imagination, Creativity, and Control in Independent Filmmaking: Mapping the Creative Tensions in Today’s Intellectual Property Regime, will be conducted by Patricia Aufderheide, a longtime critic and scholar of independent media and director of the Center for Social Media, and Peter Jaszi, professor of law, and director of the Intellectual Property Program and of the
Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic.




The research will investigate the nature of the problems confronted by filmmakers in their interaction with the intellectual property regime. Independent filmmakers—a community of creators with a very wide range of rights issues—will be interviewed in-depth about four topics:



Projects that are stalled or never started because of known rights issues;




How rights acquisitions and rights-granting changes the final product from what was originally intended;




Problems the filmmaker has had with unauthorized or inappropriate use of her or his own work;




Problems the fimmaker has had with contracts that have resulted in loss of creative control of his or her own work;






The Center for Social Media showcases and analyzes moving image media as creative tools for public knowledge and action. It acts as a seedbed for researchers to share ideas and information about all forms of socially-engaged media. The Center is a project of the School of Communication, where students, faculty and alumni form a community of learners, informing and shaping the new communication services, strategies and professional roles.




The Washington College of Law Program on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest, conducts research, offers conferences, and issue publications on the issue of the importance of maintaining balance in the U.S. intellectual property system.




For more information about the research project or the grant contact Agnes Varnum, assistant director of the Center for Social Media, at socialmedia@american.edu. For media assistance, contact Maralee Csellar, AU Media Relations, at csellar@american.edu.