legal question about what video clips i can show?

[goldenvanity]

greetings.
we are just starting and wanted to mix in some old 80s cartoons like rainbow brite and stuff. is that a problem to use old 80s cartoons or old movies that aren't your original footage?

can i use old commercials?

what is kosher, if you are charging cover to get into a event?

[goldenvanity]

just found the legal forum.
:(
it stinks cause it would have been fun to use all those crappy old cartoons.
thanks.

[holly]

This thread will probably be moved to the legal dept, but I believe the laws may be different for commercial advertising than independantly produced television programs. Our resident legal maven may disagree.

Since the goal of advertising is to cram a commercial product into everyone's face 24-7, the legality of altering and "parodying" adverts is actually quite relaxed and the law tends to side with the artist, not the mega-corp. No one "chooses" to watch advertising, therefore the right to free speech, protest, and public commentary is protected over and above the copyright. A statement on suger-coated cereals as a precurser to drug-use, for example, would most certainly be protected.

For Saturday morning cartoons (Rainbow Bright) copyrights are probably more strict, especially in the context of children's marketing being shown in an adult environment (alcohol, drug use, etc), but the arguement could be made that most cartoons since the mid 80s are simply 20-minute advertisements for toy companies anyway. Stay away from Disney, they've gone after smaller fish than you and me.

HOLLY

[hamageddon]

this is quite interesting:
http://www.retrofilm.com/
tho they do not sell those movies to the likes of us
they give a quite comprehensive list of what could be
used without legal hassle.

[fluchtpunkt]

disney actually once forced a kindergarden to remove pictures of 'their' cartoon figures the kids had drawnn themselves(!!!!).
they argued copyrights were violated - after all the kindergarden could have bought original disney merchandise instead!!!!!

smaller fish indeed!

[naiveHQ]

thanks for the retrofilm link! very useful if ure able to find the films.