Fair Use in EU film documentaries

Resolution on freedom of expression and information in documentaries approved in Rome. [10/06/08]

In a recent meeting held in Rome, Italy, the Documentary Filmmakers of Europe - under the auspices of Doc IT (Italian Documentaries Association) and IDA (International Documentary Association) - discussed a long-range proposal called “European Best Practice on Fair Use in Documentaries”.

The approved resolution states, among other things, that "Fair Use within the EU is still little harmonized, and mostly regulated at a national level", while film documentaries should be allowed to freely "quote or otherwise use third party copyrighted works" in order to effectively represent "other people’s ideas and criticism and review on such ideas".

Underlying the lack of a EU legislation similar to the US law on Fair Use, the project aims also at addressing "to what extent the 'US Best Practices' could find an application in Europe in order to facilitate global exploitation of audiovisual works".

Among the various initiatives to be launched soon, the organization plans to conduct a preliminary legal study on the US Best Practices and their applicability within the EU, to organize in early spring a general debate on fair use, and to launch the European study on copyright and Right of Quotation/fair use.

Full text of the "Resolution on freedom of expression and information in
documentaries" is available on the IDA website.