By Eddie Schmidt

Your IDA at Work
A Letter from former IDA Board President Eddie Schmidt

To paraphrase that noted philosopher, Janet Jackson, you may be asking yourselves,  “IDA, what have you done for me lately?”

And amazingly...it’s kind of a lot.

On July 26th, the U.S. Copyright office granted documentary filmmakers an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, allowing us to digitally ‘rip’ excerpts of material for legitimate fair use purposes. (Previously, this was a crime – which meant jumping thru hoops avoid breaking digital locks, not using the footage at all...or being a godless hooligan).  At last, “fair use” in the digital world is truly fair.  IDA was instrumental in this effort, which benefitted from the work of Michael Donaldson, the USC Law Clinic, and other film organizations.

A few weeks earlier, IDA organized over 200 filmmakers to sign an open letter supporting Joe Berlinger in his battle against Chevron to turn over all 600 hours of dailies shot for his film “Crude”.  IDA, again with Michael Donaldson, submitted an amicus brief during Joe’s appeal, featuring detailed testimony from the likes of Robert Kenner, Tia Lessin, Ricki Stern, Alex Gibney and yours truly.  We believe this helped to significantly reduce the amount of footage Chevron could subpoena, and introduced careful parameters into their use of that footage.

We also petitioned the FCC in favor of net neutrality - key to the future of independent documentary filmmakers - and filed another amicus brief in the case U.S. vs Stevens, which resulted in a Supreme Court victory that upheld your rights as journalists with regard to material depicting animal welfare.

So, in short, your IDA...has been out there kicking some A.  And why am I telling you this?  Because I love to pat myself on the back!

No, it’s because in order to do this work – to fight for your right to be arty...and smarty – we need your support.  If you haven’t renewed your membership since Mel Gibson was a credible leading man, then please - go online to documentary.org and renew.  Those friends you see at our events...the ones who aren’t really members?  Ostracize them.  No – cajole them into joining, for reals.  And if you’ve donated enough cash to buy KCRW a new building but you’ve never given five bucks to us, it’s time to pony up.  (Ruth Seymour’s gone now, and she can’t guilt you over the air anymore). We’re a nonprofit arts organization – we take donations.  And, if you’re planning on dying, you can even put us in your will.

We’re building a “war chest” to tackle future advocacy efforts, and we’d like to throw a little more muscle around.  So kick in, and let us buy some protein powder, will ya?  Think of IDA as the sheriff of the documentary world – and it’s time to support your local sheriff.

I thank you, Michael Lumpkin thanks you, and Janet Jackson thanks you.  

Listen to Eddie's interview on the topic of Fair Use on Digital Production Buzz.