Copyright and My Project
This week’s readings have been very useful for me, because, as I metioned in class last time, copyright is my main problem for my project. What worries me the most is I am doing a film project, and film, it seems from the readings, is one of the more difficult media to reproduce without copyright issues. Fortuately, my film is not well known, and I have alternative plans in case I cannot use the film.
Let me present my findings so far. Magyar Stories, the documentary that will be the foundation of my project, seems to have been released in 1988 by a distributor named Hungarofilm. In the early 2000s, perhaps in 2004, Hungarofilm became a division of another company named Mafilm. I have the contact info for Hungarofilm, LTD sitting next to me, which unfortunately are only two phone numbers. Mafilm has its own website, but I could not find Magyar Stories on it. I need to seach more.
Alas, the bottom line is I still do not know the trail of ownership of the film. Verifying that means contacting Hungarofilm and Mafilm directly, which I am not ready to do yet. I need to learn more about copyrights both here in the states and in Hungary. My mother insists that my grandfather bought the rights to the film, but I think she may be confusing buying a copy of the film on VHS with having rights to the film. She also might be thinking of paying to have the film converted from a European VHS format to a US format. The one thing I have in my favor is we have an old friend in Hungary who is a lawyer and was good friends with my grandparents. I will probably contact him before I get in touch with anyone else. This week after class, I will start to prepare to find out about ownership rights. I better start sooner rather than later.
I have plans B and C, in case things fall through. My plan B is in case I can only use a part of the film. I will, then, focus on the revolution itself. I will post clips where the interviewees talk about what they did during the rebellion. There is more than enough material there to build a nice commentary on events.
Plan C is in case I cannot use any part of the film. I will then use the film as a spur to build a site dedicated to the revolution in Dunapataj. In this case, I could use the film, say, by having it shown in Dunapataj, so that locals could come and see and hear about what I am doing. My project would document what happened in the town and collect memories from locals.
