The Documentary Film Program in the Center for Internet and Society (in Stanford Law School) provides filmmakers with information about fair use, access to insurance for liability arising out of copyright litigation, and access to lawyers who will defend copyright claims pro bono or at reduced rates.What is Fair Use?
Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism (definition taken from Stanford's Fair Use site).Why is Fair Use critical to documentary film?
[taken from the Documentary Film Program FAQ]Fair Use is critical to documentary film because that medium explores and discusses important social, cultural and historical issues. It is often impossible to discuss these issues effectively without reference to the historical material that illustrates, depicts and documents them. A tremendous amount of that material is under copyright. Accordingly, copyright can present a very significant barrier to the creation of many documentary films.
While documentary filmmakers may be able to solve this problem by obtaining permission to use copyrighted material from the copyright owner, this solution is imperfect and often ineffective. First, copyright owners often demand licensing fees that are prohibitively expensive relative to the documentary film budget. Second, the problem is exacerbated where the subject of the film requires extensive use of copyrighted clips due not only to total cost, but the time, effort and expense of tracking down owners and asking for permission in the first place. Finally, copyright owners may refuse permission altogether.
A robust and effective Fair Use doctrine allows filmmakers to avoid these problems and makes it possible for documentary filmmakers to take on subjects that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to discuss.
How does the Documentary Film Program work?
A documentary filmmaker who agrees to, and does, comply with Best Practices can submit a rough cut of the film to the Fair use Project, along with a detailed clip log of all copyrighted material used without permission.
If the film is accepted into the Program, the Fair Use Project or other Approved Counsel participating in the Program will review the accepted film, and determine whether, in the opinion of counsel, the film complies with Best Practices. Once compliance is certified, the filmmaker will have access to the favorable errors and omissions insurance offered by Media/Professional.
In addition, the Fair Use Project may commit to providing a pro bono defense to copyright claims arising out of the film's use of copyrighted material under Fair Use. If the Fair Use Project does not commit to providing a pro bono defense to copyright claims, other Approved Counsel participating in the Program may commit to providing that defense at a reduced hourly rate.
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