Re: news footage licensing

From: Cari Machet (email suppressed)
Date: Tue Dec 04 2007 - 11:08:36 PST


festivals seem to be more concerened with music rights but...
where did you 'steal' the work from?
reuters is a great resource they have an archive where you can purchase
story and item footage
there was a great amount of footage about that siege at the school
let me know if you want more info on reuters access and information
in the US the laws are regarding parody - you can get away with using other
peoples stuff if it is a parody
and
as far as lawyers we also have volunteer lawyers for the arts that have
answered my questions in the past
i don't know where you are though

c

On Dec 4, 2007 1:49 PM, Flick Harrison <email suppressed> wrote:

> Copyrights are counter-intuitive, i.e. thinking you are being reasonable
> is not likely correct.
> Festivals generally don't care. There was a famous incident recently with
> Johnathan Culp (Satan MacNuggit) being refused a fest screening and getting
> a campaign going around fests excluding artworks, even if they fall into
> "fair use."
>
> Here's a good article about one of his campaigns:
>
> http://www.satanmacnuggit.com/Cutting_Out_Collage.html
>
> Bruce McDonald re-cut his own feature Picture Claire into a stinging
> semi-documentary attack on the studio that ruined the full-release version.
> It showed at the Toronto Film Fest.
>
> Fair Use, by the way, is specific to your country but usually means that
> an artist not making a profit can get away with using stuff for editorial
> comment on the copied material.
>
> Unfortunately, the only answer to these questions is really "ask a
> lawyer." If you can afford a lawyer, you can afford the rights, I'm sure,
> and vice versa.
>
> Long excerpt here, so as to get this archived on Frameworks for future
> historians:
>
> Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2004 01:17:23 -0500 (EST)
> From: satanmacnuggit <satanmacnuggit at dojo.tao.ca
> Subject: Sampling and fair use - pressure me!
>
> NIFF AND FAIR USE
> A PRESSURE CAMPAIGN AGAINST MYSELF
> CALL FOR SUPPORT FROM JONATHAN CULP
>
> This one is really important and is just killing me so check it out.
>
> In 2002 I had a film accepted, then rejected from the Niagara (Canada)
> Indie Film Festival due to copyright. As you may know, I make collage
> films from mass media imagery in order to question and contextualize, and
> therefore critique, those images. I do this because 1) I'm broke and it's
> an accessible method under the circumstances, and 2) I have loved hip hop
> ever since my ear caught a fragment of "Night of the Living Baseheads" in
> the intro to Bowie's "Fame." The idea that I owe money (tens of dollars a
> SECOND usually) to corporate owners of intellectual property, if I wish to
> critique them in my media of choice, is just not convincing to me.
> "Artists' rights?" Ain't I an artist?
>
> So in 2003 I submitted again, pleading with them that, now that the place
> where I was born finally has ONE film festival, they could reconsider this
> rule. I made my arguments and gave them letters of support, including from
> other film festival workers, since this policy is in fact an anomaly on
> the festival as opposed to broadcast level - even TIFF has given awards to
> uncleared collage films in recent memory.
>
> CASH awards at that - and that is one reason I found NIFF's response
> unacceptable, because they made the case that it was unjust for collage
> films to be entered into competition for cash prizes. The compromise they
> offered was to show my films at a special free screening, to be followed
> by a debate with a copyright lawyer. Aside from the fact that I was
> working and could not attend the festival, I couldn't help but remember
> what Alanis Obomsawin told the CBC when they broadcast a rebuttal after
> "Kanehsatake": the film speaks for itself.
>
> Now it is 2004 and the festival deadline is approaching again, and I am
> living IN THE VERY CITY where the festival is happening. I have dreaded
> playing political games with one of the tiny handful of arts resources in
> Niagara, and so I have tried to deal with it through reason and argument.
> The upshot of this was that, after strenuously agreeing with all my
> arguments, the festival director explained, "It's complicated and you'll
> just have to trust me." You can write your own snappy answer to THAT.
>
> So...I wrote a petition. I prepared to place it on line, and started
> asking around for folks to endorse my demands. Which were:
>
> 1) that NIFF accept fair use collage films on equal terms, without
> stigma;
>
> 2) that NIFF allow filmmakers to 'sign off' on copyright liability without
> additional interrogation and policing by festival staff;
>
> 3) that NIFF should institute concrete and publicized methods by which the
> public can participate in decision-making and the formulation or amendment
> of policy.
>
> I've never organized, as opposed to documented, an activist campaign
> before. My skills are not too compatible but I was ready to learn if the
> alternative was artistic exile. However, now I have to face facts. Ever
> since I got back from tour, I have been dealing like mad with my personal
> emotional baggage, which I won't even get IN to here. Although I finally
> have a (temporary, borrowed) home and (too many!) moments to myself, my
> demons are eating up time that I should be spending on editing my feature,
> jamming with my band, writing.
>
> At any rate, one thing I have learned is that it is futile to try or
> pretend that you are solving the problems of your world ALONE; and to try
> to organize a campaign in my current situation would almost certainly
> reproduce that terrible mistake.
>
> SO:
>
> What I am going to suggest that you do is to write to ME and exert a
> pressure campaign on ME to keep making collage films, that methods of
> media sampling and commentary can be worthwhile and useful and should be
> supported from an activist and/or artistic perspective.
>
> Talk in your own words, from your own knowledge and experience, and give
> examples if possible. Differing viewpoints are welcome. Pix and crap like
> that all great; hell, do a collage about it. Email everything to
> jonathan at satanmacnuggit.com.
>
> If I get enough replies before April 1, I will put them out in a zine, or
> post them on the web site, or both. NIFF will definitely get to see
> your perspectives, in whatever form.
>
> Circulate, post, publish, announce. The more the merrier. Thanks!
>
> - Jonathan Culp
> Satan Macnuggit Popular Arts
> www.satanmacnuggit.com
>
>
> * *FLICK's WEBSITE:*http://www.flickharrison.com
> ** FACEBOOK*
> http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=860700553
> * *BLOG / NEWS:*
> http://zeroforconduct.blogspot.com
> * *MYSPACE:*http://myspace.com/flickharrison
>
>
> On 3-Dec-07, at 12:41 PM, tor hansen wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I am working on a short piece and hoping to utilize some news footage from
> The Beslan school siege and Chernobyl. The ultimate goal for the project being
> festival submission.
> I am hoping to get some advice around licensing and copyright issues with
> regards to news footage acquired both from television and the internet.
> Do I need festival rights? Are there loopholes to be used? Any tidbits
> would be appreciated.
>
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Tor Hansen
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Connect and share in new ways with Windows Live.
>
> http://www.windowslive.com/connect.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_Wave2_newways_112007
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________ For
> info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>

-- 
cari machet
TV Production
Democracy Now!
http//www.democracynow.org
917-805-5097
AIM carismachet
Skype carimachet - 646-652-6434
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.