Superman, the Super-8 Movie...

[Alex]

I don't know what to make of this?

http://www.fanfilmxchange.com/pages/...ews/i00011.htm

[Greg Crawford]

I once had a discussion with one of those ultra right wing guys...he thought that the copy write laws were there to take away the rights the people.

As an artist, Photographer and Filmmaker I know that the copyright laws are there to protect all of us. Young people making a personal film that grows legs, may not have even considered the legal ramifications of copyright infringements. A carefully crafted parody might be ok. I'm not an attorney.

The problem with the legal system is the people with the deepest pockets do seem to get the best protection. Case in point, I know of someone who shoots film and video who was asked to leave public property, blocks away from this well known location...because the building in question may have been in the background, of this persons shot.

It seems this regenerable landmark has it's own FILM/VIDEO POLICE, that patrol the area looking for FELONY FILMMAKERS, who do not have permission (read deep pockets) to buy shooting rights.

One could probably challenge this in court and win. If you could affording going up against a major corporation. And had your own set of body guards keeping the company goons from trashing your equipment, and person.

[calgodot]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> The problem with the legal system is the people with the deepest pockets do seem to get the best protection. Case in point, I know of someone who shoots film and video who was asked to leave public property </font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

The legal system is definitely rigged in favor of deep pockets. Just ask OJ. [img]wink.gif[/img]

With the passing of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, copyright has become less about the "rights of the people" as much as the rights of corporations. (But if we are going to have a detailed discussion about copyright, a subject of supreme importance to all creative persons, perhaps it should have its own sticky-thread.)

As for locations, you don't always need deep pockets. Here in LA it sometimes seems impossible for a low-budget filmmaker to secure locations. But with perserverance one can often find a loophole or a friendly person who will alleviate the pain$ of $hooting on location.

Cas in point: I'm shooting a 16mm film in February that has the La Brea Tar Pits as a primary location. When we contacted the company that manages the location, they told us their location fees started at $3,000/day (which is over half the projected budget of the movie). Our producer spent a lot of time on the phone, and yesterday managed to convince someone to reduce the fee by a significant amount. I'm not going to say how much, because I don't feel it would be proper to do so, but I will say that I paid Ticketbastards more for my Dylan tickets in October.

And no, there is almost no way you could win a battle like that in court, no matter how deep your pockets. Courts recognize a city or state government's sovereignty in matters of property, and that sovereignty supercedes the rights or needs of the individual. With regards to filming on location, there are also matters of liability, which the city (or other property controller) incurs once they allow you to film onsite.

Trust me on this one: I've tangled with a few city governments over locations. If a location is important or dear to you, go to the mat. In Seattle, I wrangled a prime location that would have cost 4 figures a day by contacting the business leaders of the community and convincing them that allowing me to do it for free would encourage others to come there and pay. They told the city to shag off w/r/t the fees, and I shot for eight days on a beach, in a park, on the sidewalks, anywhere I wanted to go.