Center for Social Media Study: Untold Stories: Creative Consequences of the Rights Clearance Culture for Documentary Filmmakers

Super interesting report and recommendations...

http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/rock/index.htm

This is a really interesting study by law professor Peter Jaszi and communications professor Patricia Aufderheide.

This was a year-long project conducted at The Center for Social Media at American University and the Program on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest (PIPPI) at the Washington College of Law .

The introduction on their website explains:

The study explores the implications of the current terms of rights acquisition on the creative process of documentary filmmaking in today's marketplace, and from them makes recommendations to lower costs and promote creativity. It focuses on the lived experience of independent documentary filmmakers who work primarily within a broadcast environment (sometimes with a theatrical “window”), in coping with the creative challenges created by acquiring and granting rights.

Some interesting places to visit:

Their recommendations at http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/rock/recommendations.htm

They found fair use to to be working for independent film makers. (Interesting!)

They suggest establishing a "Best Practices" model, and cite the example used in still cinematic pictures:

"The “best practices” approach has been used with some success in other disciplines. A relevant example is the 1993 Society for Cinema Studies Report on “Fair Usage Publication of Film Stills,” in 32 Cinema Journal at 3 (1993), which proved instrumental in persuading publishers to relax their strictures on rights clearances for frame reproductions and other stills in film scholarship. A more recent case, somewhat farther afield, is the library community’s statement on “Electronic Reserves and Fair Use” (2003)." [http://www.arl.org/newsltr/232/ereserves.html]

They also suggest the establishment of legal centers for independent filmmakers to help them in case they get into copyrigh trouble. (I adcovate that we needed this for academics as well, and hope one day to provide such a service.)

They also suggest that filmmakers need help getting clearance, as do (in my opinion) academics. They suggest a non-profit that would help. They also discuss the problem of orphaned works. (A problem for schoalrs as well)