In three pages this paper examines intellectual property rights as they pertain to the videotape of the Rodney King beating by LAPD police officers in this consideration of the Fair Use doctrine and the 1st Amendment. Five sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: JL5_JLfairuse.rtf
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copyright law, in the sense of protection of ownership, but also with regard to the extent that the transformative nature of the subject matter could be viewed in the light
of the Fair Use doctrine. The case hinged on the use by CNN of an amateur videotape made by one George Holliday, who had happened to witness the beating of
a black man by four white police officers and had been quick-witted enough to film the event from his home. He attempted to contact CNN, but failed and passed the
tape instead to his local news station in Los Angeles: at this point, renumeration for the use of the material had not been discussed. CNN became aware of the footage
when it was shown by the local station, with whom they were affiliated: they requested access to the material which KTLA, after contacting Holliday for permission, agreed to. At this
point, Holliday was to be paid the standard CNN fee for such material, which was $150.
During the following day, two other national networks were told by Holliday that they could have copies of the tape provided they requested such from KTLA: after a series
of communications between Holliday, KTLA and the national networks, the outcome was that two days later the images had been transmitted many times by both national and local networks and
Holliday had been paid relatively small amounts by only three of those for the use of his material: consequently, he sued CNN, KTLA, ABC, CBS and NBC for copyright infringement,
although the case never went to trial since summary judgement was given in favour of the defendants in the early stages of the pre-trial hearing.