Eyes on the Costs: Documentary Film Making and the escalating costs of copyright clearances

Peter Jaszi and Pat Aufderheide have published the final report from their year-long study, Untold Stories: Creative Consequences of the Rights Clearance Culture for Documentary Filmmakers.

The costs of obtaining clearances for documentary film makers was one of the objections raised in teh context of the discussions on the FTA. Many argued that term extension only exacerbated the problem of the high transaction costs that arise from the need, by documentary filmmakers, to obtain many clearances to show their work.

The issue has been dramatically illustrated in recent times by the controversy over Eyes on the Prize. This extract from a Wired News Story on the controversy:

"Eyes on the Prize, the landmark documentary on the civil rights movement, is no longer broadcast or sold new in the United States. It's illegal.
The 14-part series highlights key events in black Americans' struggle for equality and is considered an essential resource by educators and historians, but the filmmakers no longer have clearance rights to much of the archival footage used in the documentary. It cannot be rebroadcast on PBS (where it originally aired) or any other channels, and cannot be released on DVD until the rights are cleared again and paid for. "

Jaszi and Aufderheide have found in their study that:

• Rights clearance costs are high, and have escalated dramatically in the last two decades
• Gatekeepers, such as distributors and insurers, enforce rigid and high-bar rights clearance expectations
• The rights clearance process is arduous and frustrating, especially around movies and music
• Rights clearance problems force filmmakers to make changes that adversely affect—and limit the public’s access to--their work, and the result is significant change in documentary practice
• Filmmakers, while sometimes seeing themselves as hostages of the “clearance culture,” also are creators of it
• Filmmakers nonetheless exercise fair use, and imagine a more rational rights environment

The report also has a series of recommendations.

I wonder whether things are the same here in Australia? Anyone who has stories or friends with stories, I'd be really interested to hear (k dot weatherall at unimelb dot edu dot au).