Copyright and Fair Use

The Washington, D.C. public interest organization Public Knowledge hosted World’s Fair Use Day on Feb. 12, providing a much-needed focus on Fair Use as a key asset of copyright policy. Read more...

The International Copyright Balance and Documentary Film Project of American University, is releasing a groundbreaking report and film on the experiences of South African documentary filmmakers with copyright clearance obligations. Read more...

Documentary filmmakers in Scandinavia joined scholars and lawyers to discuss the “clearance culture”--the custom of paying for all uses of copyrighted material in films-- in Bergen, Norway on November 18. I got to keynote the event, which was thrilling, but even better was seeing the reach of the Center's copyright scholarship. Read more...

European filmmakers have been casting an envious eye at American documentarians for some time, for their ability to employ Fair Use. Fair Use, explained in the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, has made making quality documentary films easier and cheaper, without impairing owners' copyright. Read more...

So you're a film scholar and you want to analyze Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck's wonderful Shut Up and Sing. You want to show how the filmmakers demonstrate intimacy in their shot composition. Do you have to get permission from the distribution company in order to reproduce a frame grab in your academic journal article?Read more...