Copyright owners, such as NBC Universal, Warner Bros., and Viacom, were put on notice Wednesday when U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled that they must not order video be removed from Web sites indiscriminately. Before taking action against a clip, copyright owners, must form a “good-faith belief ” that a video is infringing, according to Corynne McSherry, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

And here is the news item from Electronic Frontier Foundation>>

…Images of poverty are stark, evocative, powerful, and persistent.

But these pictures are only part of the reality. They focus on the problem – without offering a solution. Obscured by these despairing images of poverty, there exist people, entrepreneurs, role models, who are changing their personal stories and the lives of their families, neighbors, villages, and countries. These ordinary women and men are seizing opportunity, starting businesses, and are making a difference locally and globally.

Cinéma Prospérité, a film competition sponsored by the Social Equity Venture Fund, strives to change the dialogue by infusing the world’s imagination with new imagery, imagery that focuses on the solution. We invite you to take an active role in reshaping how people view other parts of the world, and even their own backyard. More on the competition>>

Like the Documentary Filmmakers’ Fair Use document, this one has areas of general fair use. Some overlap those in the documentary area, but others are particular to the remix/mash-up culture. Here is an overview that is in no way a substitute for sitting your arse down and actually reading this short, insightful and beautifully written document. If you want to utilize fair use, you need to understand what it is and how it is applied. The general areas of fair use covered are:

1. Commenting on or critiquing copyrighted material
2. Using copyrighted material for illustration or example
3. Capturing copyrighted material accidentally or incidentally
4. Reproducing, reposting, or quoting in order to memorialize, preserve, or rescue an experience, an event, or a cultural phenomenon
5. Copying, reposting, and recirculating a work or part of a work for purposes of launching a discussion
6. Quoting in order to recombine elements to make a new work that depends for its meaning on (often unlikely) relationships between the elements

Read Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video>>

Documentary Voices’ artistic director, Anisa Mehdi’s aim is to bring together documentary filmmakers at all stages of career development. She says, “Combining the know-how of established talent with the wit and audacity of newcomers will give everyone a creative boost–not to mention the benefits of nourishing relationships for future projects.” A veteran American journalist and documentary filmmaker, Mehdi has a track record in building bridges through reporting and interactive workshops among people of different cultures with similar concerns. Mehdi is a Muslim-American who devotes professional and personal time to projects that break stereotypes and amplify authentic voices from diverse communities. She is founder and president of Whetstone Productions, co-producer of Documentary Voices.

The initiative is endorsed by the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF). It will showcase stories of the greater Gulf region and the filmmakers with the zeal to tell them. There will be films about music, politics, war, peace, and faith by men and women with the passion and vision for telling true stories. An international jury of experts in film, diplomacy and the arts selected the films, primarily from Arab countries, the US and Iran, to be screened for the public in July. Filmmakers will attend the screenings of their work and engage with audiences, many of them exhibiting for the first time. They will also participate in an intensive program of workshops, master classes and symposia, designed to hone skills, amplify effective communication and encourage networking across the globe.

Dubai’s leader, His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Maktoum, is eager to make his city a cultural hub of the Middle East. Documentary Voices complements that goal. Approximately 30 thought-provoking documentary films will be screened and discussed. The initiative will entertain and educate local audiences, while providing a much-needed platform for filmmakers from the region to learn about production, financing, distribution and creative development from experts in the field. Networking among professional filmmakers from both inside and outside the region will foster dialogue and continued partnerships.

The symposium is a co-production of Whetstone Productions, Anisa Mehdi, artistic director (US), and Caspian Events, Mahshid Zamani, Managing Director (Dubai). For more information, please visit www.documentaryvoices.com.

The screening showcased twelve shorts from across the globe from independent and young first-time filmmakers that will be shared with educators, the media arts community and social activists worldwide. It was a very strong group of films in terms of storytelling and quality of filmmaking, starting with the Jury Award-winning 10-minute Hammoudi, directed by Anwar Saab, about a boy in Lebanon that has experienced an enormous personal tragedy, yet lives with such gusto and joy, reveling in the nourishing support of his family and friends and his own indomitable spirit. Another stand-out for me was Perversion of Justice, a shocking exposé on the justice system. A young mother of three is sentenced to life in prison for a first time drug-related offense. Clocking in at just under eight minutes, it’s a powerfully told story of how law-making “by the books” can destroy innocent lives. This film won the Changemaker Award.

Every Third Bite, created by The Meerkat Media Collective, was delightful and beautifully shot. In the past few years, millions of bees have disappeared from their hives, never to return. This film shows how that directly impacts humankind (and every other ecosystem in existence) in entertaining and eye-opening ways. This collective of young social action filmmakers is something to watch.

A Nomad’s Life is part of a larger feature-length piece being shot in the mountains of Tibet by Lynn True, Nelson Walker, Tsering Perlo and Keefe Murren. Gorgeously photographed, the piece allows us to catch a glimpse of a disappearing world. A young Tibetan couple and their new-born baby girl still live a traditional nomadic existence, but it’s obvious that their survival is questionable against the rapidly modernizing world around them. I’m looking forward to seeing a longer version of this story.

The Countdown packs a wallop. This is a six-minute spoken word piece that won the Emerging Artist Award for Rene Dongo and Sofia Snow. Snow’s composition is one of the most powerful pieces on 9/11, the war in Iraq, hatred, bigotry, terrorism and identity that I’ve seen. Filmed on a rooftop overlooking the New York City skyline, she holds forth, bobbing and weaving as she hypnotically recites her ode to the destruction of something that will have lasting impacts for us all, not only in this generation, but in the ones to come. I was blown away and am trying to grab it for something I’m programming in the Gulf region. It should be broadcast over and over and over again–everywhere.

Click here or here to read more about this year’s festival, the talented group of filmmakers, and how you can get involved.

About the program
The UnionDocs Residency (UDR) combines an excellent and cooperative living situation with an opportunity for immersion in independent cultural production. It’s a structure for working together, for a curatorial and creative practice that engages social and political issues. It’s an environment meant to foster both critical discussion and strong community. Six carefully selected people live together in a historic building at a great location and collaborate to produce a festival-quality documentary series in the first floor screening room. Led by a founding UnionDocs member, they work directly with directors and producers, bringing new films, lectures, and workshops to local audiences, and publishing original content online.

More information, including duties and costs

“Join us as we watch Personality by Vinay Chowdry and Sarita Khurana. In the film, a Bollywood background dancer tries to make it in the film industry in India. The young man moves from his village in northern India to Mumbai to achieve his dreams of stardom, only to find out that although he is talented, he lacks what is known as “personality,” a euphemism for being light-skinned and confident in a newly globalized India. The film is in Hindi, with subtitles.” Watch the trailer>>

The evening’s moderator will be Liz Ogilvie, Head of Programming for Docurama Films.

Open to all delegates at the Rogers Industry Centre, DocAgora Ontario will present a few panels with some stellar international representatives. First up is “Who is Who in Digital Docland” moderated by Neil Sieling, Center for Social Media/American University and, the ubiquitous Peter Wintonick of Necessary Illusions. Guests Paula LeDieu of Magic Lantern (UK), Joel Ronez of ARTE web (France), Andreas Ua’Siaghail of Resolvelabs (Canada) and Lance Weiler of From Here to Awesome (USA) will discuss the changing face of the industry and who is at the forefront in developing the ideas and tools for the next shift in control and form and who is taking advantage of what we have at our disposal today in terms of production, in ways we haven’t yet fully realized.

Later that same day (Thursday, April 24), four teams of media makers will present their projects to a special panel of international and Canadian interactive experts, participants and mentors who will analyze each presentation in what they’re calling a “Convergence Lab Critique,” part of the larger DocAgora Ontario Initiative. (I saw a similar presentation in Amsterdam during the IDFA at the Mediamatic Lab, of which I’m now a member.) The panelists are Gerry Flahive of NFB (Canada), Klara Gruning-Harris of ITVS (USA), Paula LeDieu of Magic Lantern, Andra Shaffer of the Bell Fund for new media and broadcast (Canada), Joel Ronez of ARTE web, Ingrid Van Tol of the Dutch Cultural Broadcast Fund for new media and documentaries (Netherlands), and Lance Weiler.

Lastly, there will be “Short Circuits: Trends in Docs in the Digital Docspace” on Friday the 25th, moderated by Shooting People’s Ingrid Kopp. Guests Jeremy Boxer of Cinelan.com (UK), Klara Gruning-Harris, Noam Muscovich of Ithentic.com (Canada) and Mark Cranwell of Babelgum.com (UK) will discuss digital doc shorts as the hot new media. Shorts and micro-doc series are being aggressively bought for mobile distribution and can be seen in various incarnations all over the web. The panel will provide an overview of shorts in the digital realm and discuss the ways in which flexible delivery modes of short docs affect viewers, faster concept-to-delivery timelines, and the cost/benefit ratios of short-form productions. Makers of shorts, rejoice!–to market, to market where there’s a home (several, actually) for your wares.

The channel acts as a grassroots citizens’ news portal that will share revenue with its contributors. Its mission is “to democratize the media and enable participation free of government censorship or financial restrictions.” Already, over 1,500 international contributors have posted 17,000 original news reports. The channel runs on a program called Mogulus, a groundbreaking video streaming platform that enables anyone with an internet connection and a camera to create a professional-grade television channel and broadcast live to the world.

As a promotional tool for showcasing documentaries without distribution, GroundReport is currently experimenting. Every week, a different documentary will be featured in heavy rotation and will include filmmaker profiles and other pertinent information for interested buyers. They are also happy to run trailers and/or excerpts of works-in-progress.

You can check out the Creative Commons-licensed site here. You can also email Rachel at info@groundreport.com for more information.

Set in a near-future, militarized world marked by closed borders, virtual labor and a global digital network that joins minds and experiences, three strangers risk their lives to connect with each other and break the barriers of technology.

Read the WIRED review