“After making a challenging political documentary feature film with tons of B roll footage, I was seriously concerned about finding a competent intellectual property attorney to help me clear the rights in order to get the E&O insurance required by my distributor. After exhausting many efforts around town, someone recommended the Intellectual Property, Arts, and Technology Clinic at UC Irvine’s School of Law. I cannot begin to sing Prof. Lerner’s praises enough to thank him and his dedicated and very competent team of students who spent countless hours going over the footage and making crucial suggestions and recommendations in order to make sure my film would pass the intellectual property acid test. Prof. Lerner and his team were thorough, extremely detail oriented and showed top notch professionalism. My producing partner and I are ever so grateful to them for helping us surmount many odds, make fair use, get the film insured. I highly recommend Prof. Jack Lerner and his team.”
Samy Chouia, Documentary Filmmaker, Make America Laugh Again
“The International Documentary Association has been lucky to have worked with the UCI Intellectual Property, Arts and Technology Clinic since 2014, particularly around the issue of protecting the rights of the documentary filmmaking community to access fair use materials without breaking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Professor Lerner and his stellar students have led the charge on renewal of a DMCA exemption for documentary filmmakers, and ever-expanding new uses that allow filmmakers to stay up to date with technological advancements. As our representatives, they have also encouraged the Copyright Office to find less onerous procedures for legitimate exemptions, fighting to make the process more fair and accessible for independent filmmakers, artists, activists and journalists. We are deeply indebted to them for this work. Although the students we have worked with have changed year to year, we have never experienced anything other than tremendous professionalism, hard work, incredible dedication to our cause and a very thorough understanding of both what’s at stake for our community and how to navigate arguments to protect our rights. It has been a pleasure watching students graduate and leave the program, knowing that we have such smart and accomplished lawyers entering the professional arena–lawyers that truly understand the value of independent media to our democracy. ”
Marjan Safinia, President, International Documentary Association
“I am a huge fan of the UCI IP, Arts, & Technology Clinic. Jack Lerner and his students have allowed me to fully pursue my brand of filmmaking, which features extensive media analysis and relies on fair use. Without the assistance of the Clinic, I’d be needlessly exposed to lawsuits over copyright technicalities.”
Kirby Ferguson, Documentary Filmmaker, Everything Is a Remix
“I was extremely lucky to have my documentary film Sands of Silence: Waves of Courage analyzed for fair use requirements by the UC Irvine Law School IPAT Clinic, with its team of Certified Law Students, led by Professor Jack Lerner. The students excelled at professionalism and careful attention to detail, both in their communications and deliverables. They opened my eyes to issues I was not aware of and worked with me, often going the extra mile to point out potential legal issues—beyond fair use issues—that the film could face. Releasing this film would not have been possible without the IPAT Clinic. Working with them has been a fabulous experience.”
Chelo Alvarez-Stehle, Documentary Filmmaker, Sands of Silence: Waves of Courage
“Today’s technology allows new ways of storytelling that are simply not possible without the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemption. Any writer can now embed a video clip of a particular movie in his or her piece in order to analyze or comment on it. It has been a privilege to work with Authors Alliance to help them explain to the Copyright Office why the law must be recalibrated so that today’s technology can be used to its fullest capability.”
Matthew Germer ’15, Clinical Student