>isolated frame grabs are a minor element of the film, and in a form which does not even represent >the film in the form it becomes an expressive work entitled to copyright protection Sorry but not true. The individual images of a film are *explicitly* protected by US copyright law. See Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 106(5). There are two separate issues here which are getting confused. First is whether frame enlargements or video grabs are protected by copyright, which is clearly true. Second is whether academic/critical use of these enlargements/grabs are allowable by the fair use exemption, which is probably true but will vary according to the situation. ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite