Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2005 7:46 pm Post subject: Copyright and Film Festival Question
Hi Carl,
Maybe you can answer this question (or anyone else): I have a friend who has put together some videos with some music he has composed. The video footage has been taken from various DVD"s, ie none of it is original material. His films are really cool and I have suggested that he enter then into some film festivals. Problem is he is worried about copyright issues because he is using other people"s material. I reckon he might be OK as long as he is only entering film festivals and is not trying to sell or broadcast his work (I think he, like me is trying to tout his work as a composer rather than a film-maker).
I have Googled but have not been able to come up with a definitive answer. Any ideas or pointers?
Hi LED,
Copyright is a weird thing.
Even with the permission of the person who made the film, you may not be able to use it, as they themselves probably don't own the rights to it.
At the beginning of each video & DVD it stipulates, not to be shown........ and it then lists all the places where group gatherings would infringe copyright and I know for definite a film festival is a group gathering & usually they ask, that all things such as music and images have the copyright sorted, you usually sign something to say you have done so.
Thank's Nige, but that info is for copyrighting your own work. The question was if he used other peoples work, the links I gave were just a base line, considering he talked about Film Festivals and most Film Festivals are all over the world, so the two points of views I give him were to just give him some insight. If you looked at the other link, it gives you the opportunity to try and get copyright permission, not copyright your own work. _________________ http://www.withintheshadowofthetree.com/
Carl B Harrison
True festivals are international, but is there a page on international copyright? I would have thought it comes down to the laws of the country the festival is in. Also since it is produced in the UK I would expect it would have to adhere to UK law otherwise he'd be breaking the law before he even showed it?
Thank you. I'm actually grateful to you because you have unwittingly stumbled on the complex nature of copyright law and how it applies inside and outside of the UK. It cannot have esacaped your notice that LED lives and works in Italy. Therefore UK copyright law is hardly relevent to him. So, going back to the point I spelt out earlier, LED's friend (presuming that he also lives in Italy) needs to obtain some form of permission to use the movie clips etc. Are we both agreed on that point? _________________ http://www.withintheshadowofthetree.com/
Carl B Harrison
Actually hadn't noticed LED was in Italy.
Suppose in that case in comes down to Itallian copyright law and probably European law just to confuse matters even more.
Thanks to both Nige and Carl for the links. Just to throw confusion into the mix, my friend actually lives in Holland. If he lived in Italy (which could certainly be described as a less civilised country than either Holland or the UK) and entered a film into an Italian festival there would be no probs. Any law in Italy (and I do quite literally mean ANY law) can be easily bypassed by a swift backhander to a greaser in an Armani Emporio suit.
Actually hadn't noticed LED was in Italy.
Suppose in that case in comes down to Itallian copyright law and probably European law just to confuse matters even more.
Sorry Nige, that"s my fault... had not entered my location, location, location into my profile..... corrected _________________ http://www.soundclick.com/lefteyedominant
Your friend should just grab a camera and shoot something himself, he would have no copyright problems and he probably would have more fun doing it. _________________
Your friend should just grab a camera and shoot something himself, he would have no copyright problems and he probably would have more fun doing it.
Agreed.... he has done this also, however he has written a fantastic orchestral piece and used images from WWII (taken a WWII documentary). The juxtaposition works brilliantly and it would be a tragedy if no-one gets to see this work.
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