Fair use statement launched.

Documentary filmmakers have all too often found their creative work hobbled by strict copyright clearance practices. Now, filmmakers have taken the initiative to change their environment. Five leading filmmaker organizations have collaborated, on a project launched by American University in Washington, D.C., to establish shared professional understandings of when and how to invoke fair use, culminating in the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use. The Association of Independent Film and Videomakers, the Independent Feature Project, the International Documentary Association, the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, and the Washington, D.C. chapter of Women in Film and Video released the statement November 18, 2005.

Fair use is the legal, unlicensed use of copyrighted materials, but filmmakers find that broadcasters, cablecasters, lawyers, and insurers tell them that fair use is too hard to define. What is considered fair use varies by discipline and profession. Therefore, over the past year, working professionals deliberated in meetings and through their organizations to devise the Fair Use Statement. The Center for Social Media in the School of Communication at American University and the Program on Intellectual Property in the Public Interest at American University's Law School coordinated the meetings, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Filmmakers such as Katy Chevigny, Gordon Quinn, and Gerardine Wurzburg were joined by representatives of the five signatory organizations to launch the statement. Representatives of the Independent Television Service and the public television series P.O.V., as well as the University Film and Video Association (UFVA) (representing more than one hundred film schools) also endorsed the statement.

The UFVA announced a competition involving cash prizes for the best short film employing the Statement's principles on fair use. Chevigny, on behalf of Arts Engine's Media That Matters Film Festival, also announced a prize for the best use of the Statement's principles. The Center for Social Media and the Washington College of Law, both at American University, announced continuing grants for outreach and support by the Rockefeller Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, both of which have funded the effort for the past three years.

PAT AUFDERHEIDE is a professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C., where she also serves as Director of the Center for Social Media.

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For a free copy of the Statement, and more information on copyright and fair use for filmmakers see centerforsocialmedia.org/fairuse.htm.