Fair Use?

J

Jiminho

New member
Hello Everyone,
I'm finishing a documentary about spanish filmmaking which I intend to sell for an US TV Channel. We have plenty of interviews of famous directors.
The distribution companies that own the rights of some films wants me to pay "big bucks" for 1 minutes of videos; which is too much for us. We need around 6 minutes of footages in order to complete the documentary.

Then, I've read about "fair use". As my documentary is commercial, but also teaches things , can I use the footage freely via the "Fair use law" or not?

Thank you for your time
 
It's really not that simple. The context of the clip is completely missing in your post, and kind of important. Further, if it went to court it would be up to a judge, since 'fair use' is open to interpretation. And if it got to court you'd already have lost, since you'd have to put up a hefty fee to cover legal costs.

But I'm just some guy on the internet. Until you talk to your attorney you can't really say for sure. Since you say you intend to sell this to a TV distributor I'm assuming you have legal advice already on the payroll.
 
Jiminho said:
Hello Everyone,
I'm finishing a documentary about spanish filmmaking which I intend to sell for an US TV Channel. We have plenty of interviews of famous directors.
The distribution companies that own the rights of some films wants me to pay "big bucks" for 1 minutes of videos; which is too much for us. We need around 6 minutes of footages in order to complete the documentary.

Then, I've read about "fair use". As my documentary is commercial, but also teaches things , can I use the footage freely via the "Fair use law" or not?

Thank you for your time
Click to expand...

The educational use referred to in the Fair Use doctrine is specifically limited to copying done by the educational institution itself for use in classroom instruction in a regular academic elementary, secondary, or college/university level school. In other words, a teacher in an academic institution can copy a magazine article to distribute to his students or show a film as part of a lecture in his classroom without worrying about copyright or performance royalties. And it must be a part of the regular school system - private business and career colleges or corporate training programs don't count as "schools." The fact that your film conveys information and is perhaps intended to inform rather than entertain isn't sufficient to render your use of copyrighted material in it as Fair Use. Even if your film is intended to be sold to schools for classroom use, you would still need to license that footage from the copyright owners. And especially if it goes to a TV channel for public broadcast.

You're just going to have to bite the bullet and pay what the copyright owner demands or you're going to have to pull that footage from your film and replace it with something else. And next time, clear any copyrights you need, regardless of whether it's film or video, still images, music, or whatever, BEFORE you lock down the script.
 
Thank you all for your quick replies

Steve, I think I'll simply get the footages out of the doc , since they ask 6000S for 1 minute, and that TV usually pay 30 000S per doc. It's free advertisement for there films, and we have to pay for that? grr ;)

The main issue is territorial, as we can have the spanish right to show it, but not the one from the US. Spanish are ok to give it to us for free, but the US wants to makes us pay.

I'll have to find a way

Thank you all
 
Read this article, it might give you some ideas and has an example that is close to your project. I also remeber hearing a case about a documantary on boxing that had over 90% of 'fair use' footage in it, the judge sided with the producers (of the boxing doc) in court and allowed them to use it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/movies/28dutk.html
 
Jiminho said:
Thank you all for your quick replies

Steve, I think I'll simply get the footages out of the doc , since they ask 6000S for 1 minute, and that TV usually pay 30 000S per doc. It's free advertisement for there films, and we have to pay for that? grr ;)

The main issue is territorial, as we can have the spanish right to show it, but not the one from the US. Spanish are ok to give it to us for free, but the US wants to makes us pay.

I'll have to find a way

Thank you all
Click to expand...

LOL - "free advertising" is a much over-rated concept. They're just like you - they only make money to pay the rent when people pay them to view or otherwise use their intellectual property. The "free advertising" is just such a use of that property and it's making money off of those uses that is the sole reason for them even to be in the business. The TV channel you're shopping your documentary to could make the same argument that airing your film is free advertising for your production company and thus they shouldn't have to pay you to run it - your pride and the fame their airing it brings you should be payment enough. But that's not going to put food on your table, is it? That's exactly the same situation as you wanting to feature those film clips in your doco.
 
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