Is Fair Use decided by who has the most money? Cyndy Aleo-Carreira, The Industry Standard.
Anthony Falzone, Executive Director of the Fair Use Project, was involved in the defense of the suit brought by Yoko Ono and EMI Records over the use of John Lennon's Imagine in Ben Stein's documentary film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. As a result of his involvement in the suit, defending the filmmakers pro bono alongside the producers' lawyers, he came to a frightening conclusion: fair use is guaranteed under U.S. copyright law, but it's becoming too expensive to actually take advantage of what is supposed to be a guaranteed right. As Falzone points out, the film's producers were able to take advantage of the Documentary Film Program, which provides Media Professional Insurance and the availability of legal vetting of fair use of media before a movie is released. Even with that vetting, however, Ono and EMI sued over a 15-second section of a song used in a documentary, and the DVD version of the film was released without that section because of the pending lawsuit. If a film with Hollywood producers has trouble using media clips, what hope does an average citizen have of using something without worrying about huge legal expenses that could result? more... http://tinyurl.com/3lghzq _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
