Not to question the  expertise of fellow frameworkers about film, but I think 
we need to hear  from intellectual property lawyers and DVD executives on this 
matter.

As I understand it, music rights for films are handled by a few Hollywood 
outfits.  All  about rights by artisans and indies are automatically refused by 
the copyright owners (or some absurd fee is given suitable for commercial 
cinema and TV).

So you have to work through the spendy lawyers at these intellectual property 
shops.  Can a starving artist get a break?  probably a matter of luck or 
accident or pity….but I really don’t know.

What do the Visual Music folks say?

Chuck

On Nov 9, 2017, at 12:05 PM, Adam Hyman 
<a...@lafilmforum.org<mailto:a...@lafilmforum.org>> wrote:

Unquestionably they didn’t have the rights to start, but it also wasn’t a big 
issue.
Rights for those films have become an issue when DVD editions were desired to 
be made.  Reputable companies won’t distribute DVDs without evidence of 
licenses (or fair use opinions from lawyers).
I think since A-G films live below the commercial radar, most don’t get rights.

From: Myron Ort <z...@sonic.net<mailto:z...@sonic.net>>
Reply-To: "Experimental Film Discussion List 
<frameworks@jonasmekasfilms.com<mailto:frameworks@jonasmekasfilms.com>>" 
<frameworks@jonasmekasfilms.com<mailto:frameworks@jonasmekasfilms.com>>
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2017 11:55:18 -0800
To: "Experimental Film Discussion List 
<frameworks@jonasmekasfilms.com<mailto:frameworks@jonasmekasfilms.com>>" 
<frameworks@jonasmekasfilms.com<mailto:frameworks@jonasmekasfilms.com>>
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] Jazz Music and Avant-Garde Film

To me there is the interesting question regarding which avant garden or 
experimental films obtained the rights for the music. Some maybe not at first 
but maybe later if the film became more widely known.

Not jazz, but I wondered if Kenneth Anger had the rights to all that pop music 
when Scorpio Rising first came out, likewise Bruce Conner’s “Cosmic Ray”, now 
that Bruce is blue chip museum material I am sure they have the obtained the 
rights especially since the major power of that film is the Ray Charles music 
but I have my doubts about those rights when first the film came out.   Harry 
Smith just put on his favorite album at the time Monk or whatever, likewise the 
early films of Joseph Cornell.  Smith’s early compilation of American Folk 
Music was likely very casual about rights at first, just using his collection 
of rare old 78 rpm material.  Does anyone actually know facts relating to all 
this. I think at some point I did read that Anger said he had rights to the pop 
music, but not exactly sure if that was true at the beginning.


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