Several years ago, I made a fun little documentary about college students and procrastination. The story centered on Princeton University, where the university has an official deadline for all written work at the end of each semester. The deadline is known as “Dean’s Date” because only a dean can grant an extension past that date. Many students gather in a courtyard between the dorms and the academic buildings to watch their classmates run to get their papers in on time. Over the years, this informal gathering has turned into a big spectacle. The marching band shows up and parades around the throngs of students enjoying free ice cream and popcorn. The documentary was generally well received and has screened many times…in my living room.

That’s probably as far as it will go. Why? Although I got permission from the students I interviewed, the marching band played a number of Disney classics. Acquiring the rights for music is more trouble than I want to deal with. The makers of hoop dreams got smacked for $15,000 because they filmed a scene at a birthday party and somebody owns the copyright to the song “Happy Birthday.”

This has always seemed a bit ridiculous to me. I recently came across an article about this problem of The Anti-Commons in Filmmaking. The title refers to an idea called the “Anti-Commons” where the difficulties and costs associated with acquiring permissions stifle creativity and innovation. The article gives some other examples and points a dead link at a study by two American University professors who did a thorough study of the problem. I hunted down the actual study. A PDF can be found here:

Untold Stories: Creative Consequences of Rights Clearance Culture for Documentary Filmmakers

All of these copyright issues can seem terribly confusing. I highly recommend the book, The Independent Film Producer’s Survival Guide: A Business and Legal Sourcebook, by Erickson, Tulchin, and Halloran. In addition to covering issues of licensing rights and permissions, this book is a great source for a ton of other legal questions that come up for indie filmmakers. Amazon is selling it for less than 17 bucks, definitely worth it.