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That doesn't remotely obviate the requirement to obtain permission from, and give attribution to, the rightsholders of material used in the film. With Hollywoo

by rosser 12y ago

That doesn't remotely obviate the requirement to obtain permission from, and give attribution to, the rightsholders of material used in the film. With Hollywood's insistence — being premised, even — on copyrights, there's something of a "live by the sword, die by the sword" standard to which they should be held.

danielweber 12y ago
I could do an unauthorized documentary about JK Rowling without her permission, and I could show the Harry Potter book covers in that movie without getting her permission. Nixon sure didn't approve all the movies that got made about him.
- wlesieutre 12y ago
  Nixon's approval doesn't matter, copyright on images and video of him belongs to the people who recorded them. And yes, Harry Potter covers would likely be fair use in the context of a documentary about JK Rowling where it's obvious that they're someone else's work being used for informational purposes. Taking slides from someone's powerpoint and putting them on a bulletin board is more like cutting pieces out of the covers and using them as owl clipart with no attribution and in an unrelated context.
  - gojomo 12y ago
    Pastiche, palimpsest, and bricolage are all valid expressive forms which excerpt or rewrite liberally from source material. And this is a closely-related context – a fictional retelling of the same day the slides appeared! – commenting (via fiction) on major social and political issues. There's a strong fair use rationale here, too.
gojomo 12y ago
I would be interested in an actual copyright lawyer's take on this. The use here, especially lightly rewritten as it was, seems de minimis, justifiable in setting a scene derived from real events, and with no harm to the original author's reputation or livelihood. Maybe under other countries' law, a stricter permission regime applies, but for the US, it looks like a slam-dunk on fair-use grounds to me. I also prefer the spirit of the Noisebridge reply to Dreamworks [1] – roughly, "you should be embarrassed for even thinking you need to ask" – to copyright-maximalist freeze-frame nit-picking. [1] https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/DreamworksReply https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/DreamworksReply

by rosser 12y ago

danielweber 12y ago

I could do an unauthorized documentary about JK Rowling without her permission, and I could show the Harry Potter book covers in that movie without getting her permission. Nixon sure didn't approve all the movies that got made about him.

wlesieutre 12y ago
Nixon's approval doesn't matter, copyright on images and video of him belongs to the people who recorded them. And yes, Harry Potter covers would likely be fair use in the context of a documentary about JK Rowling where it's obvious that they're someone else's work being used for informational purposes. Taking slides from someone's powerpoint and putting them on a bulletin board is more like cutting pieces out of the covers and using them as owl clipart with no attribution and in an unrelated context.
- gojomo 12y ago
  Pastiche, palimpsest, and bricolage are all valid expressive forms which excerpt or rewrite liberally from source material. And this is a closely-related context – a fictional retelling of the same day the slides appeared! – commenting (via fiction) on major social and political issues. There's a strong fair use rationale here, too.

gojomo 12y ago

I would be interested in an actual copyright lawyer's take on this. The use here, especially lightly rewritten as it was, seems de minimis, justifiable in setting a scene derived from real events, and with no harm to the original author's reputation or livelihood. Maybe under other countries' law, a stricter permission regime applies, but for the US, it looks like a slam-dunk on fair-use grounds to me. I also prefer the spirit of the Noisebridge reply to Dreamworks [1] – roughly, "you should be embarrassed for even thinking you need to ask" – to copyright-maximalist freeze-frame nit-picking. [1] https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/DreamworksReply https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/DreamworksReply