Re: RARA-AVIS: Using film noir in the classroom/ Copyright

From: Etienne Borgers ( freeweb@rocketmail.com)
Date: 10 Apr 2000


Your will for acting correctly with this film thing is a good approach, but I think some good sense should be applied here.

First, beware I'm not a lawyer...

But if you show the film to one of two classes as an illustration of some of your teaching, that you (or the school where all will happen) does not ask any payment to the viewer specifically for viewing the film, and if you are not acting as a "cine-club" I think the best is to ask permission to the
*distributor* of the cassette in France , if you rally need a permission. If they are reluctant, then they are really fussy
(unless you did not explain clearly the limited, non public, one-shot...etc use).

Thinking twice, maybe *as a cine-club* you could escape some problems, knowing the French government allows often large facilities for cultural organizations? But then maybe you have to source the cassette from some lending organism? Just a wild guess (?)

I'm surprised to learn that short views as citations from films are forbidden by your Ministry! Especially invoking the artistic integrity!!! They should take some training with Hollywood producers... or big American chains for Video rentals... to learn how to forget about that.

Then, poor students... you cannot CITE anything from the modern literature neither (if still under copyright) and they (or you)will really be obliged to read the whole book- if we apply the same kind of reasoning as for films?

Vivent les maths!

E.Borgers Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384

--- Philip Benz < Philip.Benz@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but I figured if
> anyone could provide
> an answer y'all could.
>
> I'd like to obtain authorization to use a number of
> classic film noir
> films in my classroom: The Maltese Falcon, The Third
> Man, The Lady from
> Shanghai, The Big Sleep and Key Largo. I need to
> know the agency that I
> can request authorization from, both to use short
> excerpts from these
> films and on occasion to show one or more of them in
> their entirety.
>
> In the past, short citations from films (up to 3
> minutes in length) were
> considered to fall under the fair use provisions,
> and thus were exempt
> from the need to obtain prior authorization. A new
> interpretation
> commissioned by the education ministry asserts that
> to show a small
> portion of a film infringes on the artistic
> integrity of the work, and
> hence is not allowed. So if I'm to avoid becoming a
> hardened criminal, I
> need to request authorization.
>
> Kafka would be proud, n'est-ce pas?
>
> Cheers, --- Phil
> Lyc饠Astier, Aubenas, France
>
> --
> # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to
> majordomo@icomm.ca.
> # The web pages for the list are at
> http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
>

__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com

--
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 10 Apr 2000 EDT