OT: copyright and politics

busterkeaton wrote on 8/12/2004, 4:06 PM

Interesting article on a documentary filmmaker who wanted to use a clip of President Bush on Meet the Press. When the president gives a news conference, you can use that pretty freely (don't quote me I'm not a lawyer), but when the president is on Meet the Press then it's NBC's copyright. I didn't know that. The filmmaker offered to pay for the clip but they wouldn't release it. He decided to use it anyway and face the consequences.

Comments

Former user wrote on 8/12/2004, 5:09 PM

I would think you could use any of a Public speech as long as it was either a pool camera or your own. You can't use a particular networks feed, and the same for a network program, without permission.

filmy wrote on 8/12/2004, 5:36 PM

>>>I would think you could use any of a Public speech as long as it was either a pool camera or your own<<<

Meet the Press is not a speech, it is a network TV show. When the President gives a speech there is a pool feed of both audio and video that everyone can tap into and in the case of a speech from the Whitehouse they have their own internal video set up sedning out the only video feed - those types of speeches are "everyones". (Press conferences are another thing however, you normally have to be inside shooting or get permission to use footage from someone who was shooting) But when someone is on Meet the Press or 20/20 or Larry King - that is not the same thing. Outside of "fair use" those types of things are limited use. For the recent 9/11 hearings the main feed was always provided by C-Span, however you can't take a recording of their actual broadcast and use it without paying the proper fees. Had you been at any of the hearings and tied into their "pool" feed you would be fine...sort of a wierd catch 22 I know, but that is how these things work.