Old footage copyrighted?

[mitk0o0o0]

Hello.

I am working on a project, something like a film, mixed with a lot of stuff like explosions and stuff like that, most of the clips are captured by me.

At the end it's gonna be released as a DVD which will be completely free to download, no orders, no payments, nothing.

But the explosions and stuff just isn't enough and i was wondering if i use someone else's footage, fights for example i see some on Bumfights vol.1 and vol.3

Those are really old and there is NO way i can contact the people who sent them their fight footage to have the originals, but.. i can just rip them.

I'm wondering if that will somehow get me into law problems since i haven't asked the owner of the video to use it on mine. But i think as long as i don't use it for profit it's ok, right?

Also something that made me think about this:
On bumfights 4 most of their fights are really bad quality, that makes me think they just did what i am thinking of doing. I'm saying that because it's not how the videos' quality actualy is. Some of the footage i've seen there i have also seen it on different fight films with 100% better quality, my guess is they ripped it or downloaded it from websites like YouTube for example at that time. And they never got into legal problems about that.

Sorry for my grammar, english is not my language.

[PCProject]

As you would be distributing other peoples copyrighted material you would be on the wrong side of the law.
The fact that somebody else may or may not have broken that law and may or may not have got away with it will not help your defence if you get caught. You may not get caught. Who knows?
I have never viewed the content you refer to but if I were to find myself in your position I would be searching places like the prelinger archives for similar content that I could get licence to use under creative commons to avoid any legal issues.

[mitk0o0o0]

Originally Posted by PCProject

As you would be distributing other peoples copyrighted material you would be on the wrong side of the law.
The fact that somebody else may or may not have broken that law and may or may not have got away with it will not help your defence if you get caught. You may not get caught. Who knows?
I have never viewed the content you refer to but if I were to find myself in your position I would be searching places like the prelinger archives for similar content that I could get licence to use under creative commons to avoid any legal issues.

Thank you so much for letting me know about the prelinger archives!

I found some good stuff i would like to use, looked at the license and they say i am free to copy and distribute. That means i can use it with no worries, right? And best would probably be adding credits at the end

[{VJPortal}]

In the U.K., you can't copy any previous media works without the copyright owner's permission, regardless of context. However, in Canada there is "Substantial Part" and in the U.S. "Fair Use" which allows very discrete, non-approved copying.

The truth is that there is low-level nuance in copyright law between countries. Investigate those rules within countries where you plan to distribute your product.

[Kyle]

BUM fights was pretty evil imho. Exploiting street people to make a quick buck is pretty low but in the end I heard Rufus sued them and got a nice settlement.

Bumfights is a film series produced by Indecline Films. The videos feature teenagers, homeless men (most notably Rufus Hannah and Donnie Brennan) in the San Diego, San Francisco and Las Vegas metropolitan areas fighting and attempting amateur stunts in exchange for money, alcohol, and other incentives. The first video, Bumfights: A Cause for Concern, was produced by Ryan McPherson, with friends Zachary Bubeck, Daniel J. Tanner, and Michael Slyman, as Indecline Films. Shortly after sales began to escalate, Indecline Films allegedly sold the rights to two investors,[1] who went on to produce three sequels.
The videos immediately gained criticism from mainstream organizations. The US-based National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) has stated that the Bumfights videos disseminate hate against the homeless and dehumanize them.[2] In April 2006, the four original filmmakers agreed not to produce any more "Bumfights" videos or distribute videos already made, and to pay three homeless men depicted in the videos, under a settlement announced as a lawsuit was to go to trial.[3]

[Pesh]

Originally Posted by Kyle

BUM fights was pretty evil imho. Exploiting street people to make a quick buck is pretty low but in the end I heard Rufus sued them and got a nice settlement.

exactly this. fucking pricks. if i saw someone projecting it at a party i'd get into the spirit of it myself and launch my drink into the beamer tbh.

[mitk0o0o0]

Originally Posted by {VJPortal}

In the U.K., you can't copy any previous media works without the copyright owner's permission, regardless of context. However, in Canada there is "Substantial Part" and in the U.S. "Fair Use" which allows very discrete, non-approved copying.

The truth is that there is low-level nuance in copyright law between countries. Investigate those rules within countries where you plan to distribute your product.

Well, I'm from Bulgaria and I'll look up those laws. Like i said, the distribution will be for everyone, i won't be selling the project, free to download for whoever wants it from any country.

@Kyle & Pesh - Btw, i never said i'll copy the bum footage There's just some cool stunts and fights i wanted to use and that's why i'm asking since they're really old (atleast 5+ years) and i doubt i can contact the video owners for permission, and i also doubt they will give a f*ck if i use them, hmm..

Money really shouldn't be a problem i could try and buy some similar footage but i have completely NO idea where to look for such footage. Could it be that they got it by just making an offer in their website that they're buying videos for money and people just came to them by themselves. :s

[mitk0o0o0]

Any final words before i rip some stuff. Also on Bumfights 3 using headphones i heard background music which is "hidden" on one of the clips (It was set really low that you could barely hear, but still hear the people cheering and screaming) and they replaced with their own music. That also means they "stole" it too?