Speaking on an IDFA panel, Aufderheide told about her Center's work to make life easier for documentary filmmakers, coordinating a code of practises in collaboration with a law school and a copyright lawyer, Peter Basci. Best Practices in Fair Use clarifies shared values - it is not part of the legislation, but it interpretes the law, and according to Aufderheide it has saved American filmmakers millions of dollars.

 

''Copyright clearance has become increasingly difficult to handle for the filmmakers, because they need to quote other people's material in order to do their own work, and copyright terms have been extended effectively into infinity: the life of the author and a substantial amount of time, in some cases 57 or even 90 years, which in terms of a filmmaker is forever,'' she said.

 

''The archives have become concentrated in fewer hands, and large archive holders have begun to charge more and more for their material. As a result, filmmakers are facing higher costs, at the same time as they have lots of doubts about what they really need to pay for, or they find themselves in a position where they are paying for things they think they morally shouldn't.

 

''Nobody intended to make filmmakers' lives hell, but still copyright has gained a stranglehold on their work. Most legislations have exemptions for fair use, but it is not exactly specified how to employ this - each community can interpret it as appropriate to its creative practices. Now the Center has contributed to making it a freedom of expression issue,'' adds Aufderheide.

 

''The interpretation of fair use from shared values will be influential in any litigation, and effectively there is very little risk of being sued. During the last decade, there have only been nine court cases in the US, and they have all been decided in favour of the filmmakers, on the fair use principle. In Canada, the DOC organisation will issue a white paper to have this written into the new law.

 

''Neither the UK nor continental Europe have coordinated their code, but from the panel you understood that everybody knows of the problems, without having given a name to them. The legislation is different from the US and Canada, but the principle is the same, and it is important to understand the link between copyright and creative practice,'' Aufderheide concludes.

 

Among the participants on the panel were US director Kirby Dick, who made This Film Is Not Yet Rated, about the American motion picture rating system. He was given licensing contracts for clips from Hollywood films, as long as he did not critise the film industry. Still, he used 134 clips without paying and without facing threatening letters or law suits - much to his disappointment.

 

 

Jørn Rossing Jensen