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My understanding is this: 1. Copyright law is different in the US and the UK and doubtless elsewhere. It’s supposed to conform to the Berne Convention, but often doesn’t. There are also differences within Europe. 2. While fair use is acknowledged in the US, it doesn’t quite exist in the UK in the same way, or rather, the usage under discussion here, as far as I know (I’m not a lawyer but have studied the field), hasn’t been tested in a court of law. But this doesn’t mean the practice isn’t perfectly legal. 3. Whether it will ever see the light of day, who knows, but in the UK there are proposals for a new copyright act which have been out for discussion, following the Gowers Review. Under these proposals, fair use of frame stills would be perfectly OK. (Even satire would be permitted, as in the US.) 4. According to a small publication of advice for artists I read a good many years ago, an anomaly in the law means that while a whole film was copyright protected, a single frame wasn’t. (Note that this applies to still frames, not to production stills taken by the unit photographer.) Some publishers know this, others don’t, hence they follow different policies. But any decent publisher should accept the practice. Apart from the prospect of its full legalisation, no-one ever sues unless they think they’re going to make some money. Apparently (from previous discussion in this list) even Walt Disney, who are fiercely self- protective, have realised there’s no point and the publicity could well be counter- productive. And in Europe, appeals can be taken to the European Court, so it would become a terribly drawn-out process. Not worth the candle, surely. Anyway, this is my reading. Hope it’s helpful. * * Film-Philosophy salon After hitting 'reply' please always delete the text of the message you are replying to To leave, send the message: leave film-philosophy to: [log in to unmask] Or visit: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/film-philosophy.html For technical help email: [log in to unmask], not the salon * Film-Philosophy online: http://www.film-philosophy.com Contact: [log in to unmask] **