Julie wrote:
Please 'scuse the phone numbers on my last -- if
there's any way to
edit out that part, I'd really appreciate it.
Your phone numbers have been in several messages you've sent, Julie. I was wondering
if you wanted that badly to hear what your coworkers sound like. :-)
"Yes, they're in the public domain because
I've put them there now. I
created them from works that were not under copyright, most of which
(the paintings and such) were created 100s of years ago, and my work in
creating and manipulating the digital images makes them my own
work-product, just as a photographer owns the rights to the pictures he
takes but not whatever he takes the picture of."
Did Isis take pictures, or scan in pictures? Or simply resize images in Photoshop or
whatever? Two of those would probably not be covered, though the photos probably would.
Montrealis then asked about the use of videotape
covers, etc, and this
was the response:
"They fall under the "fair use" doctrine for documenting sources in
scholarly works but, even if they didn't, the remedy for infringement is
disgorgement of the profits, and there are none here. (The covers are
like your face: When you're in public, anyone who wants to can take a
picture of you, but if they try to use it to make money, you can either
stop them from using it or make them pay you what they got from using
it.) But the question is academic, because as a practical matter it's
free publicity to entities that live on publicity. And if you've ever
tried to report bootleg tapes to the companies that own the rights, you
know that they don't care." isis
I can't speak for print media, but as far as documentaries go, you have to prove that
you have the rights to use every snippet of music you can hear in the film as well as
every image and bit of film that you didn't produce yourself. (The only exception I
know of is newsbroadcasts, which can be filmed and shown without paying royalties. And
this rather stringent requirement may be one that came about as a means of avoiding
lawsuits, even ones that the filmmakers could win. But HBO, PBS, film festivals, etc.
will not play your film if you don't have the paper trail for all of the above.)
Ridiculous, I know. I would like to see a light at the end of the tunnel, so I hope
it's not as bad as all that in terms of video covers etc.
kq