Copyright and Fair Use

Cinema Minima reported today that Frederick Wiseman's seminal documentary Titicut Follies has been posted on Google Video. A quick look at the Google post reveals user "MK ULTRA 1967" has posted the whole film, and it does not appear to be Wiseman or his representatives. Read more...

The Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue hosted a meeting in Paris bringing together consumers and creators from around the world around intellectual property issues. I was there making a presentation on the American Fair Use part of U. S. copyright law and the struggle led by the Center for Social Mediar to reassert our right to use it in our creative work. I was presenting the Center and my organization Karemquin films.Read more...

Cable programmer IFC has boldly adopted an internal Fair Use guideline, after saving itself hundreds of thousands of dollars by invoking Fair Use of Hollywood film clips for the upcoming film Wanderlust. Lawyer Michael Donaldson, who conducted negotiations, was an advisor to the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, and used the Statement in his work. Read more...

At every stage, from the intellectual property rights around content production to the technical and regulatory design of the network, vibrant participatory communications media depend on a delicate balance between the realm of property and the commons. If you wanted to upset that balance, to sap the communications revolution of much of its vitality, what should you do? Speaker: James Boyle, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School

The importance and useability of Fair Use for filmmakers was featured at the CINE awards in Silver Spring, MD on April 18. CSM director Pat Aufderheide and Washington College of Law Professor Peter Jaszi presented a preview version of the Center's latest video, "Fair Use and Free Speech in Documentary Film" to a packed audience for a panel on the Fair Use initiative's first year.Read more...