[A2k] Canadian documentaries back to the vault...

[Manon Ress]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.
20061206.wxcopyright06/BNStory/Entertainment/home

Classic docs sent back to the vault
Copyright material too costly to renew

VAL ROSS

 From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

You the taxpayer paid for Donald Brittain's The Champions, his
National Film Board of Canada trilogy exploring the careers of Pierre
Trudeau and Ren=E9 L=E9vesque. But you can't see it -- because rights to
much of the footage used in this production have expired. "And it
won't become available until the NFB decides that it is worth its
money to renew the cost of image clearances," says Samantha Hodder,
executive director of the Documentary Organization of Canada.

Thanks to spiralling copyright licensing costs, payable to whoever
holds the copyright (unions, archives, creators, corporations) -- and
thanks, too, to the rising cost of insurance to protect against
copyright claims -- more and more public film footage is no longer
available to the Canadian public, nor for use by Canadian creators.
That's the message of the DOC's new white paper, released yesterday
by the 700-member organization.

The Copyright Clearance Culture and Canadian Documentaries, written
by Ottawa copyright lawyer Howard Knopf, cites many eyebrow-raising
cases. An example: Quebec filmmaker Sylvie Van Brabant's film Remous/
Earthwalk has been withdrawn from public circulation because its main
character sings 30 seconds of a recognizable tune whose rights the
National Film Board has deemed too expensive to renew.

The cost of paying to use archival footage has been increasing, in
part, the white paper notes, because underfunded institutions such as
the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and NFB have taken to using licensing
fees as a revenue source. Filmmaker Avi Lewis was told that it would
cost him $187.50 per second for CBC footage of his own grandfather,
former NDP leader David Lewis, uttering the phrase "corporate welfare
bums." The younger Lewis backed off.

The white paper also details how imminent changes to Canadian
copyright law -- probably coming early in the new year -- could make
matters even worse.

The DOC has also sent the Departments of Heritage and Industry a
letter -- signed by more than 130 filmmakers, including Oscar-winner
Denys Arcand and Emmy-winner John Kastner -- urging that Ottawa's
forthcoming copyright legislation incorporate the idea of fair use
and users' rights.

"The urban landscape is saturated with trademarks, jingles and signs.
We must not be constrained by restrictions on incidental use,"
filmmaker Kevin McMahon said. "If I inserted a wide shot of Yonge
Street into one of my films, most lawyers would advise me to seek the
permission of every merchant, billboard owner and advertiser."
Lacking that, McMahon said, he would have to remove the shot.


************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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