Transcript Program Content Rights

Managing Rights in a
Digital World
Sue Kantrowitz, WGBH
Susan Erburu Reardon, KCET
1
The Digital Future Is Here
• Public Broadcasting must:
• Distribute its content everywhere audiences are
– across time, formats and platforms. And brand
all uses, all platforms, as coming from the
“trusted source” – public broadcasting.
“We must transition from broadcast centric to platform agnostic.”
David Liroff
• Engage active viewers who want to edit, copy
and share content, not just watch it.
• Use the advantages of digital media to enhance
educational opportunities.
2
The Challenge
How to Achieve
• Expanded audience reach & opportunities for
exposure for public broadcasting content
With
• Increased costs and complexity of digital rights
clearances
• Limited sources of funding and financing and
uncertain financial return
3
What’s Needed
• A comprehensive, affordable package of digital
rights, permitting:
– Distribution across multiple platforms
(digital cable, internet, wireless devices)
– In a coordinated manner
(e.g., “windows” for broadcasts, online
streaming and downloads to own or rent,
VOD, podcasts, and DVDs, etc.)
4
What are the “Rights”
to Digital Content?
Must inventory and analyze:
• Creators/Owners/Sources of Content
• Performers
• Collective Bargaining
Agreements/Contracts
• Distributors/Profit Participants
• Planned Methods and Duration of Use
5
Sources and Availability of Rights
Sources:
Availability:
 Actors, Writers, Directors, and
Musicians
 Rights, payments, and profit
participations usually subject to
collective bargaining agreements.
 Composers
 Published music (synchronization,
performance rights, sound
recording)
 Underlying literary material, stock
footage & still photos
 Original produced material
 Must be negotiated.
 Subject to compulsory licenses
and negotiated agreements.
 Third party owners; must be
licensed
 Acquisition or license must be
negotiated
6
Distribution Platforms
• TV - broadcast, cable,
multicast, satellite
• Radio - traditional, satellite
• Internet – streaming audio &
video
• Home Video/DVD
• Video On Demand (VOD) free and pay
• Non-theatrical - in flight
• Educational Audio-visual
• International broadcast, cable,
satellite
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Print
Audio Podcasts
Video Podcasts
Off air educational re-record
rights
Promotion
Derivative Works –reversioned
content for educational
purposes
Wireless devices
Cellular Phones
Telcos
7
The Goal
Clearances for each element of a each work,
providing:
• All rights, in all media, now known or hereafter
developed, throughout the world, in perpetuity,
without limitation or restriction of any kind
whatsoever.
Since this is not always possible….
• What are the issues and alternatives?
8
The Copyright Challenge
• Copyright - a set of rules, expressed in statutes, case
law and international treaties, designed to balance
the creative and financial interests of authors with the
public’s interest in the free accessibility of ideas, to
encourage both “creation” and “dissemination.”
• With the capabilities of digital media and multiple
distribution platforms, how to strike this balance where everyone is an author and a user - whose
rights prevail?
• Sections 114 and 118 of the Copyright Law contain
the compulsory licenses we rely on for the use of
visual and musical works in public broadcasting, but
they don’t reflect digital technologies.
9
Third Party Rights Challenge
• Third party rights include talent, music, stock
footage and stills.
• Rights are still licensed from archives and unions
like items on an “a la carte” menu.
• Many archives and unions have not yet defined or
priced rights for new media, including on-demand
and wireless or cell phone uses.
• Purchase or buyout of multi-platform rights may
not be possible or affordable relative to the service
or revenue potential of those distribution methods.
10
The Current Landscape
• Insufficient funding to clear all rights needed
• Impact on Editorial:
• Reliance on more originally created content and/or
public domain material to reduce clearance costs
• If rights are not cleared, elements must be substituted
or the entire program is unavailable for exploitation in a
given market.
• Is it “progress” when editorial choices are dictated
solely by cost and availability of multiple rights?
• Expanded reliance on “fair use” – risks
11
Elegant Universe
Case Study
• Over 200 agreements were necessary to
acquire rights to each program element
contained in this 3 part series.
• All these agreements have the same
provisions for:
 Use/Media (e.g., broadcast, audio-visual, home
video,etc.)
 Term (period)
 Territory
 Miscellaneous (language, promotion, etc.)
12
Open Content – The Next Step?
• Open Content is any creative work published in
a format that explicitly allows copying and reuse
of the material.
• Use of material may be restricted by a Creative
Commons license.
• Some philanthropic foundations are interested in
funding projects which are publicly accessible on
a creative commons license.
13
Open Content - Emerging
Business Models
• Eric Von Hippel, author of Democratizing
Innovation, released his book for sale and free
download
 Hard cover sales - over 4800 copies sold (3000 had
been the norm)
 Over 4000 free downloads from the web site
 Reached largest number of readers and offered
format of choice.
• Successful co-existence of traditional print
publication with free “download to own.”
14
Open Content - Emerging
Business Models
• MIT Open Courseware
 Courses offered under a Creative Commons license
 Use Adobe PDF to limit ability to re-mix, edit, burn
copies of course materials to address “control”
concerns of Professors
 Financial Support: currently, foundations;
experimenting with corporate sponsorship, major
gifts, piloting eBookseller referrals, print on-demand
fees.
15
Open Content - Emerging
Business Models
• Prelinger Collection -- vast film collection
available for free, non-profit, educational
use through the Internet Archive and
licensed for commercial use by Getty
Images
Getty’s sales increased as a result of
increased user traffic on Internet Archive
16
A New Business Model for Public
Broadcasting?
• If we continue to produce and distribute great content
openly and freely, will it increase our value and funding
will follow? (the “Field of Dreams” model)
• Or do we charge for content on certain platforms, like the
commercial networks and new media companies
(Google, iTunes, Yahoo) when they release programs on
demand for a fee? (the “Desperate Housewives” model)
• What can we learn from the BBC’s open content
initiative, the Creative Archive?
• Is there a sustainable model for public broadcasting from
among these alternatives?
17