Congratulations to our client, Tin Dirdamal, whose film DeNadie won the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award at Sundance.
The film follows immigrants from South America as they traverse Mexico on a dangerous journey to try to reach the Promised Land, the United States. While there have been films that have explored the poor treatment and abuse of Mexican immigrants in the United States, this is the first film I have seen that has shown how immigrants from Honduras and Guatemala are robbed and beaten by both vicious Mexican gangs and the police.
Sundance programmer Joseph Beyer has said: “First-time filmmaker Tin Dirdamal displays moving photographic grace and sophisticated understanding of his subjects as he follows their search for the sustenance their native countries can't provide. These personal stories force deeper understanding of the United States' border crisis, while exposing hypocrisies in a Mexican culture faced with equally uncomfortable intolerance of its own. All this from a film that doesn't take political stances; it merely brings us the voices of those affected, the results of which are far louder.”
Read more about the film at: http://www.indiewire.com/people/2006/01/park_city_06_ti.html
Our website recommendations
Here are some great websites you may find useful
www.roboform.com which fills out forms for you for free and remembers your passwords. The free version of the program holds 30 passwords and allows multiple identities.
Reverse dictionary. http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml also check out http://dictionary.reference.com/ A traditional on line dictionary.
A Prairie Home Companion. Listen to all the old shows on your computer: http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2005/03/
http://www.withoutabox.com/v2/filmmakers/#qa
SAG Indie: Read about the new low budget agreements for employing actors. http://www.sagindie.org/
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Federal Court Affirms that National Geographic May Republish Works by Photographers Digitally without Consent
Federal Court of Appeals Affirms Ruling That National Geographic May Republish Works by Freelance Photographers and Journalists w Digital Formatithout Consent in Many freelance photographers and journalists contributed to the National Geographic Magazine over its history. Most did not specifically license the magazine to republish their work on a recent CD-ROM and DVD entitled “The Complete National Geographic: 108 Years of National Geographic Magazine.”The Federal District Court ruled in the magazine’s favor and the Court of Appeals affirmed the decision on copyright infringement claims filed by photographers and journalists.
The Court of Appeals concluded that the digital versions were a privileged “revision” of the works published in the printed magazines. The Copyright Act allows publishers of collective works a privilege to republish any contributions to the collective work as part of a revision of the collective work. The Court gave two reasons why it considered the revision privileged in this case. First, the Court pointed out that “the original context of the magazine is omnipresent” in the digital versions. Second, the digital versions consist of an “almost” identical presentation of the original magazines. An unprivileged revision, on the other hand, “precludes the reader from viewing the underlying works in their original context.”
The Court ruled against the journalists and photographers on their contractual claim. Though the contracts did not specifically authorize the republishing of the work, the Court concluded that the journalists and photographers had an affirmative obligation to specify in the contracts that their work not be republished in digital format, if that is what they sought.
Faulkner v. National Geographic Society, 409 F.3d.S 26, 2005 U.S.App.LEXIS 3642 (2nd Cir. 2005).
Hustle & Flow Nominated For Numerous Awards And Now Released on DVD
Congratulations to our client writer/director Craig Brewer on the DVD release of his award winning film Hustle & Flow. After earning more than 22 million at the box office, 600,000 copies flew off the shelves in the first week of its home video release, exceeding all expectations.
Actor Terrence Howard received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance, a nomination for the Breakthrough Award at the Gotham Awards, and Best Male lead for the Independent Spirit Awards. The cast was honored with a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast at the SAG awards, and the film won the Audience Award at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Perhaps most impressive, Ain’t It Cool News Harry Knowles named Hustle and Flow as simply the Best Film of the Year. Ain't It Cool News: http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=22103
MGM and Universal Find Out That They Must Comply with Every Detail of the Red Tape Associated with Filing Satellite and Cable TV Royalty Claims with the U.S. Copyright Office
MGM and Universal Studios lost a copyright suit over some stamps.
U.S. Copyright regulations require that cable and satellite TV royalty claims be filed each year in the month of July. Claims can be filed so that they are delivered by July 31st or they can be postmarked during July. However, the regulations specifically provide that postage meter machine postmarks are not sufficient to establish a claim. MGM and Universal sent their claims out on July 30 using a Pitney-Bowes postage machine. The Copyright office received the claims on August 2nd or 3rd and refused to accept them.
The studios went to court. MGM and Universal submitted uncontested affidavits from employees and the U.S. Postal Service itself in order to establish that the claims had been mailed in July. The Postal Service even confirmed that if the mail arrived by August 2nd or 3rd it had to have been mailed in July. Finally, affidavits (also uncontested) were submitted showing that there is no possible way for the postage meter machines to print a backdated postmark.
MGM and Universal argued that the rejection of the claims violated the Copyright Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and denied them their Constitutional right to due process. The District Court dismissed the case and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The Court of Appeals ruled that the Copyright Office had not misinterpreted its rule, due process had not been denied and the refusal to waive the requirement was not arbitrary nor capricious.
Universal City Studios v. Peters, 402 F.3d 1238, 2005 U.S.App.LEXIS 5664 (D.C.Cir. 2005).
The Court of Appeals concluded that the digital versions were a privileged “revision” of the works published in the printed magazines. The Copyright Act allows publishers of collective works a privilege to republish any contributions to the collective work as part of a revision of the collective work. The Court gave two reasons why it considered the revision privileged in this case. First, the Court pointed out that “the original context of the magazine is omnipresent” in the digital versions. Second, the digital versions consist of an “almost” identical presentation of the original magazines. An unprivileged revision, on the other hand, “precludes the reader from viewing the underlying works in their original context.”
The Court ruled against the journalists and photographers on their contractual claim. Though the contracts did not specifically authorize the republishing of the work, the Court concluded that the journalists and photographers had an affirmative obligation to specify in the contracts that their work not be republished in digital format, if that is what they sought.
Faulkner v. National Geographic Society, 409 F.3d.S 26, 2005 U.S.App.LEXIS 3642 (2nd Cir. 2005).
Hustle & Flow Nominated For Numerous Awards And Now Released on DVD
Congratulations to our client writer/director Craig Brewer on the DVD release of his award winning film Hustle & Flow. After earning more than 22 million at the box office, 600,000 copies flew off the shelves in the first week of its home video release, exceeding all expectations.
Actor Terrence Howard received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance, a nomination for the Breakthrough Award at the Gotham Awards, and Best Male lead for the Independent Spirit Awards. The cast was honored with a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast at the SAG awards, and the film won the Audience Award at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Perhaps most impressive, Ain’t It Cool News Harry Knowles named Hustle and Flow as simply the Best Film of the Year. Ain't It Cool News: http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=22103
MGM and Universal Find Out That They Must Comply with Every Detail of the Red Tape Associated with Filing Satellite and Cable TV Royalty Claims with the U.S. Copyright Office
MGM and Universal Studios lost a copyright suit over some stamps.
U.S. Copyright regulations require that cable and satellite TV royalty claims be filed each year in the month of July. Claims can be filed so that they are delivered by July 31st or they can be postmarked during July. However, the regulations specifically provide that postage meter machine postmarks are not sufficient to establish a claim. MGM and Universal sent their claims out on July 30 using a Pitney-Bowes postage machine. The Copyright office received the claims on August 2nd or 3rd and refused to accept them.
The studios went to court. MGM and Universal submitted uncontested affidavits from employees and the U.S. Postal Service itself in order to establish that the claims had been mailed in July. The Postal Service even confirmed that if the mail arrived by August 2nd or 3rd it had to have been mailed in July. Finally, affidavits (also uncontested) were submitted showing that there is no possible way for the postage meter machines to print a backdated postmark.
MGM and Universal argued that the rejection of the claims violated the Copyright Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and denied them their Constitutional right to due process. The District Court dismissed the case and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The Court of Appeals ruled that the Copyright Office had not misinterpreted its rule, due process had not been denied and the refusal to waive the requirement was not arbitrary nor capricious.
Universal City Studios v. Peters, 402 F.3d 1238, 2005 U.S.App.LEXIS 5664 (D.C.Cir. 2005).
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