Use of Film Clips - Fair Use?

            There is, of course, a vast market for use of film clips and still photography in documentaries, obituaries and other non-fictional purposes. The copyright owner,or authorized stock photo agency, or other agent who markets the material, charges a fee for the specific usages intended.

            Four lawsuits brought in New York Federal Court have recently held that uses of film clips in documentaries and an obituary were, in fact, fair uses of the work, and therefore no license fees are due.

            Three of the cases were brought by Susan Nicholson Hofheinz, and involved clips from films such as Invasion of the Saucerman, Aliens Invade Hollywood, I was a Teenage Werewolf, and I was a Teenage Frankenstein, they which were used in a documentary style film about common themes and political contexts of "alien" visitation films.

            One court found the use to be transformative; that is, the use was for the purpose of enriching the commentary on the alien visitation genre. In addition, it did not constitute the heart of the original work.

            The fourth case, brought by Video Cinema Film, Inc. against CNN, ABC and CBS, concerned the use of from 9 to 20 second film clips of Robert Mitchem in the movie G.I. Joe, as part of obituaries aired by these networks within 24 hours of his death.

            That Court found these uses to constitute fair use. They were also considered to be transformative since the purpose was to show his acting skills in the performance for which he won an academy award, and not to portray the theme of the movie.

            Although all of these fair cases involve film clips, the legal principal applies equally to still photography.