Guest speaker Anne Lennox gave a presentation on copyright beginning with the 101 basics. Anne reminded the group that copyright is automatic, there are no registration requirements in Australia and ideas and facts are not protected. Rights of ownership, duration of copyright, infringement, fair dealing and music were also points that were explored. I was particularly interested in the rules and complexities of copyright law with regard to social media, specifically, with Pintrest. About two weeks ago, I was politely asked to remove a pin by a British photographer.
Another interesting fact that was mentioned was that anything created on behalf of the government is owned by the government. They just have it all!
Rachel’s input is always valued; she interjected with a statement about how film festivals will not take submissions if the proper copyright steps have not been taken; this is definitely food for thought.
The second guest speaker was Kyla Brettle who must have inspired everyone in that room. With her butterfingers style discourse and ‘cool as shit’ mannerisms, Kyla explicitly and implicitly relayed that, if you’re passionate about your work, you too can travel the world, party hard and document new and interesting stories… but just make sure that you endeavour to use a telephone and not email when communicating with participants.
Kyla presented a Venn diagram that cleverly illustrated the roles in documentary production; they were, text, funder (spell check hates that word), producer, participant and audience; however, as Kyla had only limited time to speak and the Venn diagram was only touched on; I feel that I’m needing more clarification on this.
Finally, why does Paul Ritchard remind me of all of my uncles?! I really look forward to picking Paul’s brains about film and television.