Could I get away with using 2 minutes of Hemp For Victory in my free documentary?

PositiveFuture

PositiveFuture

I understand there are many grey areas in copyright law so I thought I'd ask about this specific video.

I want to put two minutes of this famous film in my free, web only, educational documentary. Those three factors put me at the good end of the fair use spectrum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne9UF-pFhJY

I'm not sure if copyright will have expired in some countries.

If the owners decide they don't want it in, they just contact me and I take it down, right?

Maybe I will write to them but I doubt I'll get a response.

OK thx.
 
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Most likely the copyright holders will contact the ISP or hosting company and have it removed. It's unlikely you'll get sued or anything, just a cease and desist.

Did you even try to contact them? It's worth a shot.
 
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Yeah wise words. I should give it a shot.

It's a really old film so I wondered if it was approaching 70 years or whatever. It's not essential to put it in my film, so I'll just contact them and see what happens.
 
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Hemp For Victory was a propoganda film made by the US Government back in WW2, when it became (briefly) legal to grow hemp for the war effort. After the war, hemp became bad again and the gov hid the very existence of the film. Activist Jack Herer found a copy many years later.

This film is definitely public domain. There are hi-quality versions in many online archives.

So what's your project about?
smiley_bong.gif



I understand there are many grey areas in copyright law
Click to expand...

No, not really. Just a lot of people looking for loopholes.
 
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Thanks a lot Steve! Where might I find a good quality version?

Actually growing hemp has been legal for most of recorded history. Many of yr founding fathers grew hemp and it was legal for most of the U.S.'s history. Randolph Hearst, inspiration for Citizen Kane, got rid of the stuff.

Haha, the project has nothing to do with smoking dope. That's one of the myths I want to do away with.

Hmm, maybe copyright is not so grey, but every run down on fair use I've read seems to say it's a vague area.
 
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PositiveFuture said:
Where might I find a good quality version?
Click to expand...

A 416mb version:

http://www.archive.org/details/Hemp_for_victory_1942_FIXED


Actually growing hemp has been legal for most of recorded history. Many of yr founding fathers grew hemp and it was legal for most of the U.S.'s history. Randolph Hearst, inspiration for Citizen Kane, got rid of the stuff.
Click to expand...

Also Anslinger and the about-to-be-closed prohibition dept needing a new scapegoat. And DuPont wanting to sell their new NyLon. And a dozen other reasons that mainly revolve about money.

It really chaps my hide that a quality hemp shirt can run a good $60, when it could be so much less if we could actually produce the fiber ourselves.

Good luck with your project. Sounds like a sensible one.
 
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Thanks for that version.

Yup yr right about all that history. It's a pretty interesting yarn. For my project, I decided to leave that out, and just focus on the future and practical benefits, without naming names. You have to be diplomatic in this field.

Some states are quietly overturning the federal ban. I don't follow the US struggle closely enough to remember which ones.
 
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