Fair Use Free Speech
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Deadline: May 1, 2006
Go to www.ufva.org for a flyer and entry forms

UFVA is hosting a contest for the best short documentaries employing
fair use, made by higher education students and faculty.

Fair use is the legal use of other people's copyrighted work without
permission or payment--in certain circumstances. Fair use ensures that
freedom of speech survives, even though usually copyright holders have
the right to control use of their material.

The law does not specify exactly what fair use is, in order to leave a
great deal of flexibility for different creative communities and
changes over time. When in doubt, the courts turn to professional and
creative practice and understanding. In recent years, documentary
filmmakers have found that broadcasters and cable casters, lawyers and
insurers tell them that fair use is too hard to define, and therefore
they cannot invoke it. Since fair use is interpreted by discipline and
profession, working professional documentary filmmakers through their
organizations established basic principles to make fair use more
useable. That statement, along with more information, is available at
centerforsocialmedia.org/fairuse.

Entrants should employ fair use in quoting material in their
documentaries, using the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best
Practices in Fair Use as a guide to their decision making.

Get the statement at http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org
For background, read Untold Stories: Creative Consequences of the Rights 
Clearance Culture for Documentary Filmmakers -
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/rock/finalreport.htm

ELIGIBILITY:

    * Must have primary creative control of the work and have all rights 
and clearances for material not employed under fair use. · Work must be 
submitted in NTSC, DVD (DATA only) or mini dv

CRITERIA

    * Work must be 5 minutes or less · Work must be a documentary in any 
genre, including but not limited to essay, satire, parody, historical, 
musical, and personal · It must employ fair use in quoting copyrighted 
material

PRIZES

    * $1,000 faculty only plus one year membership to UFVA · $1,000 best 
co-production between faculty and student(s), plus one year membership 
to UFVA · $500 second prize co-production plus one year membership to 
UFVA · Honorable mentions: iPods plus one year membership to UFVA · 
Winners will be screened at the UFVA Conference in August, 2006

-- 
Jeremy Butler

www.ScreenSite.org
www.TVCrit.com
www.AllThingsAcoustic.org

Professor - TCF Dept - U Alabama

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Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
http://www.ScreenSite.org