Donaldson & Callif

THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION’S LEGAL GUIDE TO INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING

Michael Donaldson and Lisa Callif have co-written The American Bar Association’s Legal, which includes a very useful CD with all the contracts, everything creative professionals and the lawyers who represent them will need to know from script stage through screening—financing, copyright, hiring a staff, distribution deals, etc. The book also features case studies throughout each stage of the filmmaking process and boxed tips on how best to work with your lawyer. Thankfully, the book is written in language that even non-lawyers will understand. Although this is clearly written with Americans in mind, South Africans will be able to apply the principles.

Michael Donaldson’s publication in the Journal of the Copyright Society has recently been sited by Mark Madison’s blog at Madison.net.  The link and full story are found below.

http://madisonian.net/2011/01/23/fair-use-symposium-published-in-journal-of-the-copyright-society/

ʼs hearings about exemptions to theDigital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) , documentary filmmakers and remix artists and their supporters came to Washington, D.C. to show regulators the cost of criminalizing copying of popular culture. (Read about day one where the focus was on fair use and educators here.)

The following letter, drafted from materials provided by Donaldson and Callif, is an update on an amicus brief filed in support of filmmaker Joe Berlinger. If you’re not familiar with the situation regarding his film Crude and Chevron, please read the below and then this editorial by Robert Redford detailing the importance of this case.

An appeals court has ordered the director of “Crude” to turn over outtakes from his movie to Chevron, but the judges have greatly limited the amount of footage the oil giant will be entitled to obtain and has placed restrictions on the way it can be used.

Director Joe Berlinger has been fighting Chevron’s request that he turn over 600 hours of material, representing all the outtakes from his 2009 project. In May, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that he had to turn over all of the footage, but Berlinger appealed, and the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York heard his case Wednesday.

Chevron has argued the material is needed in its legal battle in Ecuador against a class action of plaintiffs, who claim the oil giant bears responsibility for environmental damage and health woes from years of drilling in the region.

Chevron claims the footage could contain evidence of unethical conduct among the class-action plaintiffs’ lawyers as well as questionable activity among government officials.

The three-member appellate panel said Thursday that Berlinger must turn over all footage “that does not appear in publicly released versions of ‘Crude,’?” which shows the counsel for the class action plaintiffs in the Ecuadoran litigation, private or court-appointed experts in those proceedings or current or former officials of the country’s government.

Although it had been likely that Berlinger would have to turn over some material, given the precedent set by the 2nd Circuit’s 1999 decision in Gonzales vs. NBC, the documentary community also had been wary of how the released material would be used. The appellate court said the material could only be used for “litigation, arbitration or submission to official bodies, local or international.”

Chevron also must pay “reasonable expenses” that Berlinger bears in duplicating the footage.

Via e-mail, Berlinger said that he wanted to reserve his full analysis of the decision until the appellate panel delivers an opinion explaining its rationale.

“However, I can say that we are extremely pleased with today’s results,” he said. “The appeals court has substantially limited Judge Kaplan’s overbroad order, which was the main thrust of our appeal. Furthermore, the court has expressly prohibited Chevron from using any footage we do turn over in their public relations campaigns, a goal that was extremely important to me.” He added that the appeals court “affirmed that documentary filmmakers are no different than any other journalists deserving First Amendment protection.” Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson said that they were “pleased and eager to move forward with this matter.”

“We have already seen instances of collusion and fraud on the part of plaintiffs’ lawyers in portions of Crude that have been publicly released. We are confident that review of the outtakes will reveal additional instances of misconduct.” Michael C. Donaldson, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of nearly two dozen organizations and individuals in support of Berlinger, said that “quantitatively, it was a partial victory for both sides.” Among other things, he said, Berlinger does not have to turn over footage in which he talked privately with the class action plaintiffs, their friends and neighbors. “That is exactly the footage that Berlinger was most interested in protecting,” Donaldson said.

The U.S. Copyright Office has cleared the way for individuals to break antipiracy measures on DVDs, video games, e-books and other digital media for several “fair use” purposes.

Every three years, per a Congressional mandate, advocates have the opportunity to petition the government for exemptions to the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This time, the copyright office has decided to grant some very ambitious proposals.

Perhaps most controversially, users can manipulate their mobile handheld devices to achieve interoperability and install third-party software in an activity commonly known as “jailbreaking.”

Documentary filmmakers are hoping the U.S. Copyright Office will soon grant them a fair use exemption from a law that bans copying content from commercial DVDs.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes it illegal for anyone to bypass the security measures on a commercial DVD to download or copy the content. That presents a problem for documentary filmmakers who want to make legal use of the content, according to entertainment attorney Michael Donaldson.

 With the successful kick off of the Los Angeles Film Festival in Downtown Los Angeles, I wanted to get to know more behind the festival’s move from Westwood to the city. So I spoke to entertainment attorney, Lisa Callif who negotiated the legalities for the move.

June 4-6, 2010

http://www.producedbyconference.com/

The Produced By Conference returns to Los Angeles June 4-6, 2010 for an extraordinary weekend of discovery, learning and creative inspiration. Presented by the Producers Guild of America and hosted by 20th Century Fox Studios, the Produced By Conference brings together the entire producing profession.

Dean Cheley will be speaking on the panel PREP FOR YOUR REP: FINDING AND WORKING WITH AGENTS AND MANAGERS AND LAWYERS

Sunday June 6th, 4:45 pm – 6:00 pm