Advocacy
IDA is at the forefront of protecting and advancing the legal rights of documentary artists, activists and journalists. Recent efforts have focused on promoting net neutrality, fair use and government arts funding, as well as defending filmmakers’ first amendment rights.
DMCA Exemption for Documentary Filmmakers
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes it unlawful to rip from DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and many other encrypted technologies to prevent unauthorized access to copyrighted works. The law blocks filmmakers' ability to make fair use of invaluable footage. While fair use allows us to use copyrighted footage, the DMCA restricts our access to such material. Since 2010, IDA and its Board of Directors members from the University of Irvine (UCI) Intellectual Property, Arts, and Technology Clinic and Donaldson + Callif have represented a coalition of major independent filmmaking organizations in the effort in protecting documentary filmmakers' exemption from the DMCA.
Other work
![The Ukrainian flag flying over a city.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/images/articles/advocacy_post_ukraine_2022.jpg?itok=5a3CT5oo)
![An image of Claudio Rojas, a latino man with black hair, embracing a family member. Courtesy of Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/images/articles/documentary_magazine_claudio_rojas_2021_new.jpg?itok=mDPnZ5H6)
![Filmmaker Nico Opper and their baby, Jonah making faces at the camera. Opper is wearing black-rimmed glasses and Jonah, an orange shirt. Courtesy of Nico Opper.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/images/articles/documentary_magazine_motherhood_nico_opper.jpg?itok=Ioo6TSgy)
![A young Afghan couple pictured in the snow. Image from Elizabeth and Gulistan Mirzaei’s ‘Three Songs for Benazir,’ which is set and filmed in refugee camps in Afghanistan. Courtesy of the filmmakers.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/images/articles/documentarymagazine_marjblog_threesongsforbenazir.jpg?itok=RKkmEn4a)
![Elizabeth Mirzaei and Gulistan Mirzaei standing in an Afghanistan desert with a camera, in 2019. Gulistan is carrying their daughter, Maryam. Elizabeth is wearing a headscarf, Gulistan is wearing a black t shirt and glasses, Maryam is wearing a striped shirt and floral pants. Image courtesy of the authors.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/images/articles/documentarymagazine_elizabethandgulistanmirzaei_1.jpg?itok=8dMLdlbx)
![film still from 'Angels are Made of Light' of Afghan girls in school session in a courtyard.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/images/articles/angels_made_light_advocacy_v2.jpg?itok=VhXdPQCC)
![](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/images/articles/endiceretribution2021_web.jpg?itok=MRqWKiMk)
![](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/images/articles/ida_cov-19_pelosiletter.jpg?itok=GPJ00gBH)
![](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/images/articles/ida_cov-19_senateletter.jpg?itok=KtTup-0S)
![](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/20638848_2026999833980452_5277152088166798613_n.jpg?itok=oV82t481)
Pagination
- Page 1
- Next page