FAIR USE

Fair Use Panel, 2007 Annual Conference of the University Film and Video Association, North Texas – examples of documentary fair use.

These are intended as illustrations of fair use in documentary film and as a basis for a more extended discussion of the rights of free speech and freedom of the press.

1. Employing copyrighted material as the object of social, political, or cultural critique

Play clip from Belinda – PSA with sock as metaphor for condom

Play clip from Fast Food Women – Druthers corporate training film. Training on how to put together a deluxe quarter

2. Quoting works of popular culture to illustrate an argument or point

Play clip from Chemical Valley – industrial spots followed by the Graduate

3. Capturing copyrighted media in the process of filming something else

Play clip from Morristown: in the air and sun – baby shower with incidental music

4. Using copyrighted material in a historical sequence

Play clip from Justice in the Coalfields – John L. Lewis

5. Broader questions of free speech

Play clip from Shelter – Lorenson -- used without a release after review by free speech attorney

Play clip from On Our Own Land -- aerials -- questioned by local news whether we had the right to airspace over company property

 

For a full examination of Fair Use and the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practice in Fair Use, visit the Center for Social Media, School of Communication at American University http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/fair_use/