Unless it's super-vital, write your own narration as a replacement. Fair Use would only kick in if you were citing the article in a criticism, review or parody.
Is the author absolutely sure that the NYT owns the copyright? Oftentimes the rights revert back to the outside author upon publication. $800 btw sounds like what would be charged for non-commercial use. It's quite reasonable, considering, but of course, it's not really possible. -----Original Message----- From: Francisco Torres <[email protected]> To: Experimental Film Discussion List <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, Feb 20, 2014 1:05 pm Subject: Re: [Frameworks] question about fees for permission to use material If you modify it ''substantially'' it becomes a different text. Think William Burroughs... On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 4:48 PM, Caryn Cline <[email protected]> wrote: Dear Frameworkers, I’m writing to ask your advice. I’m working on a short handmade, experimentalfilm that takes as its “script” a slightly modified version of an essay I foundin the New York Times, which I planto use as a voiceover narration on the soundtrack. I wrote to the author to ask his permissionto use it, which he gladly gave with this caveat: everything he writes for thepaper is owned by them. He gave me the nameof someone to contact at the paper, who sent me to the paper’s licensing people.I decided to follow that lead, to see where it went. [I have not had good luck with trying to getpermission for a reasonable fee before, but I decided to try, as anexperience.] Well, needless to say the people who license for the Times want me to pay them what I regardas way too much money for the use of the essay--$800 for rights for festivals,galleries, streaming, broadcast, etc.—for the life of the title. As you know, it is difficult to communicateto people in these positions that there is absolutely no commercial value inthe film. The money is about 1/3 of my overallbudget. Some of my handmade film buddies advised me toforget about the permission and just use it anyway, but I feel funny aboutdoing that now, and as one friend who works in the business cautioned: myproject and I are on their radar now. ShouldI try to talk them down? (Theyoriginally asked for $1300, so this is a considerable reduction from outrageouslyexpensive to merely quite expensive.) ShouldI claim “fair use,” and use the text anyway? What are the chances that theywould come after me? I’d appreciate any advice or hearing aboutyour own experiences with this. Manythanks. CC -- Caryn Cline co-producer, Acts of Witness www.actsofwitness.com vimeo.com/carynyc _______________________________________________ FrameWorks mailing list [email protected] https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks _______________________________________________ FrameWorks mailing list [email protected] https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
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