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/
• Mark Litwak: https://www.indiewire.com/features/craft/attention-filmmakers-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-malpractice-insurance-59131/
• 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
• Secondary and Practice Guides:  Corporations/Partnerships/LLCs: https://libguides.law.ucla.edu/secondarypractice/corporations
• • Cunningham, Drafting Limited Liability Company Operating Agreements
  • Borden and Rhee’s, Limited liability entities: state-by-state guide
  • O’Neal and Thompson’s, Close Corporations and LLCs
• California Secretary of State: https://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/starting-business/types

Intellectual Property Issues

Practice Guides

• M. Donaldson, L. Callif, & C. Perez, 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

  • Goldstein on Copyright  

  • Nimmer on Copyright 

• 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

• GURU database (see Teams > General for instructions)
• Copyright Office Index of Fair Use cases: https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/ 

• Statement of Best Practices: https://cmsimpact.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Documentary-Filmmakers.pdf 

• Examples of Fair Use: https://cmsimpact.org/resource/examples-of-successful-fair-use-in-documentary-film/ 

• UCI Review of Recent Fair Use Jurisprudence: https://ipat.law.uci.edu/recent-fair-use-cases/ 

• Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/ 

• Goldstein on Copyright:  https://libguides.law.ucla.edu/secondarypractice/intellectualproperty 

• Nimmer on Copyright:   https://libguides.law.ucla.edu/secondarypractice/intellectualproperty 

• The Ultimate Guide to Fair Use and Copyrights for Filmmakers (Frame.io) https://blog.frame.io/2017/08/30/copyrights-and-fair-use-for-filmmakers/ 

• Hawes, Copyright Registration Practice https://libguides.law.ucla.edu/secondarypractice/intellectualproperty 

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
• Copyright Office Public Records System - Pilot (CPRS) – Runs a parallel search with the Copyright Public Library, but using a more powerful search engine and including results with images and searchable metadata:  https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/
• American Library Association (ALA) Digital Copyright Slider: http://librarycopyright.net/resources/digitalslider/index.html

Libel/Slander/Privacy Issues

• Ashley Messenger, MEDIA LAW: A PRACTICAL GUIDE
• Sack on Defamation: LIBEL, SLANDER & RELATED PROBLEMS (PLI)
• Kohler, Levine, Ardia, Cohen & Papandrea, MEDIA AND THE LAW (2d ed. LexisNexis)
• Reporter's Committee Guide to Pre-Pub Review: https://www.rcfp.org/resources/pre-publication-review-guide/
• 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), https://medialaw.org/

FOIA Requests / Access

• Reporter’s Committee, Open Government Guide: 
  https://www.rcfp.org/federal-open-government-guide

• American Immigration Counsel’s June 20, 2023 Step-by-Step Guide To Filing A FOIA Lawsuit: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/practice_advisory/a_step-by-step_guide_to_filing_a_foia_lawsuit_toolkit.pdf   

• Westlaw, Westlaw has the Guidebook to Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act 

• Access to Public Records in California: 
  http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/california/access-public-records-california
• First Amendment Coalition: https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/