For films that are certified to have followed the Best Practices guidelines, Media/Professional [an insurance company] will provide a special (read: much lower cost) policy; Stanford’s Fair Use Project will provide pro bono legal services to the film. If we can’t provide pro bono services, then Michael Donaldson’s firm will provide referrals to a number of media lawyers who will provide representation at a reduced rate. Either way, filmmakers will be able to rely upon "fair use" in the making of their film. The Fair Use Project and Donaldson will defend the filmmakers if their use is challenged. Media/Professional will cover liability if the defense is not successful.
This is a huge breakthrough....
Comment. This beautiful offer amounts to free or nearly free insurance against fair-use liability for conscientious film-makers. I'd love to see a similar project for conscientious scholars, especially in fields like art history that are crippled by copyright over-reaching. We have to pull together three elements: good guidelines for fair use, public-spirited lawyers willing to defend scholars who comply with them, and a public-spirited insurance company willing to cover damages in the rare case of liability. (If the guidelines are good and eligible clients comply, then we know liability will be rare --and will become even rarer as the guidelines are revised.) Kudos to AU, Stanford, Media/Professional, and Michael Donaldson for inventing the recipe and committing themselves to implement it for film-makers. Now that we know the recipe, what are the chances that a new or overlapping set of players can implement it for scholars?
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/24/2007 12:49:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
