NAMAC Policy Statements

At their semi-annual board meeting in September, NAMAC’s Board of Directors developed and adopted the organization’s Policy Statements.  Rooted in NAMAC’s past policy work performed on behalf of our members, these statements represent what we see as the most pressing issues facing our members and supporters in the coming year.  They will guide how we direct resources and staffing to policy work.  Annually, the Board of Directors will review the organization’s Policy Statements to ascertain if they remain the most pressing issues facing artists and organizations working with media arts, public media, and/or the visual arts.  At that time, the Board may add and/or delete policy issues they deem appropriate for NAMAC’s continued policy work.

Download a PDF of these Statements here.

NAMAC Policy Statements

Net Neutrality and Access to Broadband Technology

• NAMAC represents organizations, communities and artists working in a diverse range of creative disciplines.  For most, if not all, of our members and supporters, affordable access to an open, fast Internet is a basic necessity.  In the 21st century, the free flow of diverse ideas, creative work, and entrepreneurial activity is essential to our democracy and economy.
• Affordable: Internet access must be readily available to creative producers, and the population at large, regardless of their socio-economic status.  
• Open: The level playing field provided by the open architecture of the Internet has created unprecedented opportunities for artists and media producers, regardless of their affiliation with powerful, well-resourced institutions.  All Internet users must have unfettered access to any legal content of their choice online. All media makers and other artists must be able to distribute their creative work without artificial constraints or in competition with entities that have unfair agreements with Internet service providers for prioritized treatment.  NAMAC will defend this principle, commonly called ‘net neutrality.”
• Fast:  For all Internet users and creative producers to experience the full potential of the Internet, the United States must develop and implement a plan that will provide high-speed Internet capacity nationwide.
• On net neutrality and access to broadband technology, NAMAC works on behalf of or members and supports in partnership with these organizations: Media and Democracy Coalition, New America Foundation, Future of Music Coalition,  and Public Knowledge.

Public and Private Arts Funding

• All Americans deserve access to create, participate in, and/or experience art supported by a robust local, regional and national arts infrastructure.
• Supported by public and private arts funding, a robust arts infrastructure strengthens local communities’ economies, increases student learning and achievement, and allows all Americans to experience art within their communities and through the Internet.
• On public and private arts funding, NAMAC works on behalf of our members and supporters with other peer intermediary organizations to help develop arts policy and is a sponsoring organization of Arts Advocacy Day in Washington, DC.  

Creative Freedom of Expression

• For the free flow of ideas, creativity, and information in a democracy there needs to be safeguards to protect copyright while at the same time allowing fair use practices of copyrighted material.
• Increasingly corporations threaten creative freedom of expression by bringing intimidating lawsuits against individuals and organizations that exercise their legal, protected rights under fair use legislation.
• On creative freedom of expression, NAMAC works on behalf of our members and supporters in partnership with these organizations: Center for Social Media, USC’s Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic, and Public Knowledge to protect fair use.

One example of such a partnership is the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, a groundbreaking publication that outlines documentary filmmakers' rights in quoting copyrighted materials. This Code of Best Practices was a collaborative publication, written by: The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, Independent Feature Project, International Documentary Association, the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC), and Women in Film and Video (Washington, D.C., chapter);

In consultation with the Center for Social Media in the School of Communication at American University and the Program on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest in the Washington College of Law at American University;

And endorsed by Arts Engine, Bay Area Video Coalition, CINE, Doculink, Electronic Arts Intermix, Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media, Full Frame Documentary Festival, Independent Television Service, National Video Resources, P.O.V./American Documentary, University Film and Video Association, Video Association of Dallas, and Women Make Movies.

Download the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use here.