After watching Eyes on the Prize earlier this week at the Civic Media Center, I felt compelled to contact my elected officials about it. I figured it’d be an appropriate time to introduce Florida Free Culture as well. The letter follows; I welcome comments. Feel free to borrow from it to use in a letter of your own: I’ve included information on contacting your legislators at the end of the letter.

Dear [legislator]:

As your constituent, I am writing to express my concern with the current state of copyright law.

This week, in recognition of the month of February as Black History Month, I watched the film Eyes on the Prize. Considered the best documentary series on the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the films won several prestigious awards, including several Emmys and an Oscar nomination. As a student majoring in history at the University of Florida, films like Eyes on the Prize are priceless to my education and professional development. I was therefore surprised and dismayed to learn that Eyes on the Prize is an illegal film.

Originally broadcast on PBS, the film today cannot be broadcast, shown publicly, or re-released on DVD or VHS. When the film series was made in the 1980s, every piece of newsreel footage, photograph, and song had to be licensed from its copyright holder. Due to limited funding, the filmmakers could only afford to buy rights to the material for a certain number of years, and now those rights have expired. The series producer calls it “a scenario from hell.�

Protected by the fair use doctrine of copyright law, individuals may still watch personal copies of the films, and educators may use the films in class. However, they must rely upon the original VHS copies, which are dwindling and wearing out. Because the series cannot be re-released, they can’t buy new copies of the films. Tapes for sale online can cost up to $1,500. Schools and libraries have nowhere to turn; education about this crucial period in our history suffers as a result.

This seems far distant from Section 8 of Article I of the Constitution, the clause that authorized Congress to create copyright “to promote the progress of science and useful arts.� Rather than promoting the progress of science and the arts, copyright law is inhibiting progress.

Eyes on the Prize is not the only documentary that has fallen victim to our current copyright laws. In November, the Center for Social Media at American University released a report entitled “Untold Stories: Creative Consequences of the Rights Clearance Culture for Documentary Filmmakers.� The report found that copyright clearance costs have risen dramatically in the past 20 years, and the process for clearing rights is “arduous and frustrating, especially around movies and music.� To quote the report:

Filmmakers must pay a license to use a pop song that may play in the background [of footage shot] in a pizza parlor, an image or sequence from a movie or archival footage owned by someone else. They may need to pay not only songwriters but performers, not only movie studios but actors. There is no central place to find out who owns what. There is no rule of thumb for pricing. No one has to agree to license. And it doesn’t matter if you didn’t intend to quote it. Did somebody sing “Happy Birthday� in your documentary? Too bad - you owe Time Warner a small fortune.

This “clearance culture� has a chilling effect on new creativity, which is especially devastating for independent filmmakers and small businesses. The documentaries silenced play a vital role in education and democratic discourse, and America suffers for the lack of them.

I founded Florida Free Culture, a student group at the University of Florida, to encourage resolutions to problems like this. The members of Florida Free Culture, and the 8 other Free Culture groups across the country, support a return of copyright law to the spirit of the Constitution. I hope you will join us in seeking to keep America great, strong, and free.

Therefore, I urge you to support copyright reform. I look forward to communicating with you in the future.

Sincerely,
Gavin R. Baker
President
Florida Free Culture
http://uf.freeculture.org/

Read on for information on contacting your legislators…