Resources for Documentary Film Legal Clinic - Law 769

Transactional Law Resources (in addition to templates available in Teams/SharePoint site)

Transactional Documents: Contracts, Releases, Distribution Agreements

• Teams, General Channel, Files: Clinic Templates
• T. Crowell, THE POCKET LAWYER FOR FILMMAKERS (2d Ed.)
• M. Litwak, CONTRACTS FOR THE FILM AND TELEVISION INDUSTRY (3d Ed.)
• Appleton & Yankelevits, HOLLYWOOD DEALMAKING (3d ed.)
• Secondary & Practice Guides: Entertainment Law: http://libguides.law.ucla.edu/c.php?g=183348&p=1208944
  • On Lexis
    • Entertainment Industry Contracts
• Practical Law, within Westlaw, sample searches:
  • adv: TI(license /5 agreement)
  • adv: TI(release) AND (film! OR photograph!)

Insurance Issues

• Sydney Levine, Fimmaker Must-Read: Attorney Take on Errors & Omissions Insurance, IndieWire: http://www.indiewire.com/2015/08/fimmaker-must-read-attorney-take-on-errors-omissions-insurance-170893/
• Checklist: http://www.marklitwak.com/uploads/2/2/1/9/22193936/client_insurance_qs.pdf   

Corporate Formation

• CEB OnLaw, available through: http://libguides.law.ucla.edu/az.php?a=c
  • Within “Business Law” library:
    • Forming and Operating California Limited Liability Corporations
    • Organizing Corporations in California
    • Selecting and Forming Business Entities
• California Secretary of State: http://www.sos.ca.gov/

Intellectual Property Issues

Practice Guides

• M. Donaldson & L. Callif, CLEARANCE AND COPYRIGHT (4th Ed.)
• M. Donaldson & L. Callif, THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION’S LEGAL GUIDE TO INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING (2010)
• Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Practices: http://cmsimpact.org/code/documentary-filmmakers-statement-of-best-practices-in-fair-use/
• Secondary & Practice Guides: Intellectual Property: http://libguides.law.ucla.edu/c.php?g=183348&p=1208954
• Secondary & Practice Guides: Entertainment Law: http://libguides.law.ucla.edu/c.php?g=183348&p=1208944
• • On Westlaw
    • Lindey on Entertainment, Publishing & the Arts
    • Film & Multimedia & the Law

Copyright

• Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center: https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/
• Nimmer on Copyright
• Goldstein on Copyright (in Intellliconnect, under “Intellectual Property” library, available through: http://libguides.law.ucla.edu/az.php?a=i
• https://blog.frame.io/2017/08/30/copyrights-and-fair-use-for-filmmakers/
• Article on Copyright Preregistration: http://www.medialaw.org/component/k2/item/4564

Useful Links

• Copyright Office: https://www.copyright.gov/
• Copyright search (copyrights 1978-present): http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First
  • Records may give contact information—starting place for who to contact for permissions
  • If searching by name MUST enter as [lastname] [firstname] or the catalog won’t find it: e.g., Morris Errol NOT Errol Morris
    • If uncertain, can search name as keyword
• American Library Association (ALA) Digital Copyright Slider: http://librarycopyright.net/resources/digitalslider/index.html

Libel/Slander/Privacy Issues

• Ashley Messenger, A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO MEDIA LAW
• Sack on Defamation: LIBEL, SLANDER & RELATED PROBLEMS (PLI)
• Kohler, Levine, Ardia, Cohen & Papandrea, MEDIA AND THE LAW (2d ed. LexisNexis)
• UCLA Law, Secondary & Practice Guides: Entertainment Law: 
  http://libguides.law.ucla.edu/c.php?g=183348&p=1208944
  • On Westlaw
    • Lindey on Entertainment, Publishing & the Arts
    • Film & Multimedia & the Law
• Bloomberg, Media Law center:https://www.bloomberglaw.com/product/ip/page/tc_media_law
• Media Law Resource Center (MLRC), medialaw.org

FOIA Requests / Access

• Reporter’s Committee, Open Government Guide: 
  https://www.rcfp.org/federal-open-government-guide
• Access to Public Records in California: 
  http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/california/access-public-records-california
• First Amendment Coalition: https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/