Faculty Fellow Jack Lerner and his team at the USC Intellectual Property and Technology Clinic has assisted in the creation of an exemption in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which now allows documentary filmmakers have access to archived footage for “fair use” in their productions. “This is a huge win for documentarians,” said Lerner. “Instead of using DVDs, filmmakers were forced to use costly, time-consuming, and technically inadequate workarounds, like taking the footage they sought for their films from VHS tapes. It became increasingly clear that these were not viable alternatives, as such material is either unavailable, too degraded, or technically unsuitable for documentary filmmaking.” To read more about this landmark decision, visit the USC Gould website or visit documentary.org.