Good evening.
You already know my name is Devon Cooke. I am a Documentary Filmmaker and tonight I'm asking you to consider creating a positive right to quote for audio and visual media.
In print, it's perfectly natural to quote other written sources with attribution. A politician's words, a line of poetry, a fact from a scientist—all of these can reinforce the written word. It's part of the medium. What I'm asking is that the same quoting be considered part of the mediums of audio and video.
As a documentary filmmaker, it's my job to represent reality on video. To do that I need to use sources beyond just the camera I hold. I can't show every point of view with just my camera. I need to use other sources. In these days, the reality is, it's on YouTube, it's on CBC, and it's in all sorts of visual media, so I need to use other people's footage to do my job. I can't represent reality if I have to get permission for every clip, or if I have to spend thousands of dollars a minute to clear it through CBC and all their team of lawyers and all that.
The mechanism for doing this is fair dealing, but I can't use fair dealing with the law, as written, because I don't know if what I'm doing is fair until I go to court. My lawyer and my insurance company say that this is too late—if I'm in court, I've already lost—so if I want insurance, which my broadcasters require me to have, I can't rely on fair dealing.
With that in mind I would love the committee to consider recommending creating a bright line right to quote in audio and visual media. There should not be a question that I have the right to use other footage to represent reality, this is my job.
I should not have to ask permission to accurately represent what others have said in my medium. I shouldn't have to ask film companies, I shouldn't have to ask celebrities, I shouldn't have to ask the government, and I certainly shouldn't have to ask my insurance agents.
So, please consider making a right to quote a positive bright line part of copyright, so there is no question I am allowed to use fair dealing in the course of my work.
Thank you.