Intellectual Property Clinic Students Provide IP Counseling on New Film
As part of its long-standing effort to help documentary filmmakers follow best practices for fair use of others’ intellectual property, WCL’s Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic (IP Clinic) student attorneys provided legal counsel for production company Kikim Media’s latest new film, Look Who’s Driving. The documentary, which originally aired on October 23, 2019 on the PBS science series NOVA, focuses on the potential advances and pitfalls of autonomous vehicles, a.k.a. self-driving cars.
Kikim Media summarizes the film as follows:
“The real possibility of a world in which cars no longer require human drivers has been sparked by a surge of innovation that’s being heralded by some as the biggest advance in transportation since horses gave way to automobiles. But successfully achieving such a radical transition poses an unprecedented set of technological, engineering, legal, regulatory and other challenges. Which ones have already been overcome, which still remain, and how are scientists and engineers at leading institutions in the field trying to tackle them?”
To properly advise their client, IP Clinic student attorneys reviewed all copyrighted material featured in the film, such as music excerpts, images, and quoted material, to insure that each instance constituted “fair use” under the meaning of Section 107 of the Copyright Act. This is a quintessential example of intellectual property work that serves the public interest. Documentary filmmakers and small production companies examine important, timely issues that are often highly relevant to the public. While their budgets do not contain funds to hire white-shoe law firms for compliance counseling, they would not be able to withstand a major copyright infringement lawsuit, the prospect of which could stifle many voices that need to be heard. The IP Clinic’s work aims to keep independent, fact-based, creative content in the public sphere so that it may benefit everyone.