Editorial Reviews:
Book Description
Now fully and extensively revised, updated, and expanded, this well-written, legalese-free guide provides filmmakers with essential advice on almost every conceivable rights issue they might encounter: from the initial acquisition of material through the rights situations that arise in preproduction, production, postproduction, and final release. Armed with this book, filmmakers can protect themselves and their work from disastrous legal actions and save thousands of dollars in legal fees. CLEARANCE AND COPYRIGHT, the first book devoted to the clearance and copyright issues that affect the film and video community, is a must read for all filmmakers – producers, directors, screenwriters – whether they make features, shorts, documentaries, or music videos.
Customer Reviews:
Review #1: clear language and discussion - may have some factual errors
2004-11-09 
Clearance and Copyright is a clear language guide to copyright issues as they affect filmmakers and to how to clear copyrighted work so that you can use them in your film. It has sections on clearing the script, any music that can be heard in you film, clips from other movies, sculptures etc which may appear in the background and just about any issue that could come up. At the end of each section Donaldson includes sample contracts which might be used to clear that particular item.
Overall this was a good introduction to copyright and how to clear copyrighted materials for independent filmakers. It was easy to understand, practical and helpfull. ..except for the glaring error that I noticed and presumably others that I didn't:
I read the 2nd edition released in 2003. In a discussion on what is in the public domain (in my book this was on page 46) Donaldson states, "Very old works for which the copyright has expired are in the public domain. How old? Take the current year and subtract 75." I am certain that this is false. In 1998 the Sony Bono Copyright Extension Act leangthened all copyrights by 20 years. So really work made before 1998-75 years (1923) are in public domain until 2018 at which point works made 95 years before the current year will be in public domain. I am not an expert on copyright law and I noticed this error which makes me wonder what errors I didn't notice. I am assuming that this error is a throwover from the first edition that nobody caught. That doesn't keep Disney from sueing you if you rerelease Mickey Mouse's Steamboat Willie (published in 1928 and so according to Donaldson free for the taking today in 2004).
I don't recommend this book, only because of the glaring inaccuracy that I found. If you have to double check information then you are wasting your time. What this book is good for is a clear language book to get you thinking about the issues. You will be thinking about the issues, but you may also be mislead about the details. And as Copyright and Clearance makes clear you need to be very picky with clearance issues.
Review #2: Must Have for Indy Filmmakers
2004-02-11 
If you are serious about making films and in particular documentaries, this is a great book and valuable resource. I can't count the number of times I've consulted it.It clears up a great deal of the myths surrounding 'fair use' and 'pubic domain'. Many filmmakers wrongly consider a wide variety of things as 'fair use' or 'public domain' and would be well advised to read this book before rolling a frame of film or video on anything bigger than a home movie. It covers privacy rights, music rights (yes, you must pay/clear ALL music that you use except under the most rarest of circumstances. Even a couple of notes from a popular song could result in an expensive injunction against your film.), clearances and issues related to copyright. The 20 buck you'll spend on this book will save you thousands in legal fees down the road when it comes time to actually show your film outside of your house, be it a film festival, TV distribution, or theatrically. The mistakes you avoid could well mean the difference between acquiring E&O insurance and having your film sit on the shelf due to clearance problems. The writing is simple and straight forward and is an easy read for those who might shy away from books on legal issues. While not as in-depth as a Westlaw book or other scholarly legal tome, it provides relevant citations to important cases. It assumes the reader is intelligent but not trained in law. |
