copyright

The result of more than a year of research -- including many firsthand stories from artists, historians, Web bloggers, and others -- "Will Fair Use Survive?" documents how the rights to fair use and free expression are being threatened by an intellectual property system that is perilously out of balance.

The report includes six recommendations for change. Documentary filmmaker of "Hoop Dreams," Gordon Quinn, proclaims that the report "is part of a wider movement to educate people about fair use, and it's going to help us users organize and reassert the right to fair use."

Have you ever wanted to use a photo, some footage, or a poster while working on a documentary project, and found that you weren’t clear about who owns the copyright? Maybe you did your research and discovered that the poster is from 1958 and the printer is out of business. That makes the poster an “orphan work.” What do you do? As the law now stands, you are better off avoiding using a potentially risky element than facing the peril of not getting “Errors & Omissions” (E/O) insurance. Thus you must leave it out of your project. Without E/O insurance your rising star doesn’t stand a chance of distribution.