Documentary filmmakers use thousands of images, trademarks and other intellectual property in their creations, often targeting for criticism the people or corporations that are the lawful owners of the material being used. So when threatening letters arrive at filmmakers’ offices, they often send an SOS to Los Angeles attorney Michael Donaldson, the “legal Obi Wan Kenobi” and fair-use guru of the documentary film set. Donaldson, a partner in the firm of Donaldson and Callif, has been representing independent filmmakers for more than 30 years. He’s the general counsel to Film Independent (home of the Independent Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival) and the Writers Guild Foundation. He co-authored The American Bar Association Legal Guide to Independent Filmmaking with partner Lisa Callif. He can also say he wrote the book on fair use. Clearance and Copyright: Everything You Need To Know for Film and Television is in its third edition, praised by Geoffrey Gilmore, director of the Sundance Festival, as the “one place to go for all the answers.” Despite the accolades, Donaldson comes across more as a documentary fan than a Hollywood power player. “I’ve always had a passion for independent film, and documentary film in particular, and my practice is a matter of following that passion,” he says. “Lawyers who are unhappy with their practices might have gotten involved with things they weren’t very passionate about.” Donaldson’s calling was an evolution. “I started out as a litigator and decided fairly early on it wasn’t something I wanted to do forever,” he says. A large, now defunct New York City firm rented more offices than it needed, and he traded his time for working on entertainment cases, transitioning from litigation to a more general entertainment-transactions practice representing independent filmmakers, writers, directors and producers. In representing documentary film makers, Donaldson goes up against copyright holders who don’t even want the docs made, let alone allowing use of footage they own. “We operate as educators as much as anything else,” he says. “We evaluate the film, and it’s frequently a matter of educating the lawyer on the other side as to what the law is. Most lawyers think they know fair use, but we handle the claims and they all go away. Occasionally we settle one for less than the standard licensing fee.”

Seeking to copy — legally– from Blu-ray discs and online media

One of the criticisms of the digital locks used by broadcasters and Hollywood studios is that, in trying to squelch piracy, they can interfere with fair uses of copyrighted material by other artists. And under federal law, it’s illegal to circumvent those locks. Chicago-based Kartemquin Films (the subject of the video at top) and other documentary filmmakers won a temporary exemption from that law a year and a half ago, with the help of students at the USC Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic and lawyers from Donaldson & Callif of Beverly Hills. Now the clinic and the firm are seeking to extend the exemption to all filmmakers and authors of multimedia e-books. The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act made it illegal to circumvent “technical protection measures” on DVDs and other digital media. That created a dilemma for filmmakers who wanted to use a snippet from an earlier movie on DVD: Even if the use wasn’t infringing, they could still be sued for going around the locks. So even though circumvention tools are widely available online (despite the fact that they’re illegal to make or distribute), filmmakers used them at their peril. That’s why documentarians sought an exemption from the Copyright Office in 2009. Recognizing the potentially chilling effects of the anti-circumvention provision, lawmakers had included in the 1998 law a requirement that the office consider granting relief every three years to those whose non-infringing uses were adversely affected. The exemption documentarians won in July 2010 applies only to DVDs, and it expires next year.

“Interrupters,” “Hell and Back Again” vie for Gotham doc prize

October 20, 2011 by Adam Benzine Email/Share

Danfung Dennis’s Afghan war film Hell and Back Again (pictured) and Steve James’s Chicago-set doc The Interrupters are among the five nominees for the Best Documentary prize at the 21st Gotham Independent Film Awards, which recognize excellence in American filmmaking.

The other nominees in the doc category are Better This World, from directors Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega; Bill Cunningham New York, from Richard Press; and The Woodmans, from C. Scott Willis.

For the Academy’s New Chief, a Balancing Act

By MICHAEL CIEPLY

Published: October 30, 2011

Dawn Hudson, the first person to hold a newly created post as the organization’s chief executive, has hung in more than twice as long. But that does not mean Hollywood’s film academy is at ease with the latest strong-willed woman to promise what has always come hard for it: change.

Connie Martinson Talks Books

Features:

American Bar Association’s Legal Guide To Independent Filmmaking by Michael C. Donaldson and Lisa Callif

watch?v=uu59r2rJRBY&feature=player_profilepage

Hollywood Law: Up Next – Profiles

 By IAIN BLAIR, TODD LONGWELL, KAREN IDELSON, MICHELLE WEISS

 Here’s a group of attorneys that stand above the crowd and represent the next generation of sharp legal minds in the entertainment business.

Lisa A. Callif

Partner

Donaldson & Callif

Southwestern University Law School, 2001

Nine Ways Independent Filmmakers Can Fight the IRS

Are you an independent filmmaker? Wondering if the IRS will eviscerate your already precarious financial status? (For more on that, click here.)

Wonder no more: Not only can you take the nine-factor test right now in the privacy of your home, we’ve also provided a study guide to help you pass with flying colors.

Documentaries Supposed to Make Money, Court Told

By MICHAEL CIEPLY LOS ANGELES —