Fair Dealing in Unscripted Content

As part of the Mind Your Business strand, we're offering training in a range of areas related to business management & development, production finance, legal & business affairs, rights, and compliance, giving individuals the tools needed to thrive in their chosen field in unscripted TV. 

In this session, specialist media content lawyer Louise Lambert of Reviewed & Cleared will take a deep dive into copyright law, focusing on the sometimes tricky to grasp defence of fair dealing.  Louise will start with a refresher on copyright basics, before discussing why programme and film makers might wish to rely on fair dealing and how to do so with minimum risk.

Who it's for

Fair dealing is most often relied on in unscripted TV, but it does have a place in scripted too.  Whether you are new to fair dealing or have worked with it before, this session will be useful for producers, production executives and archive producers.

The majority of the Unscripted Skills Fund (USF) online short course offering is for those at early career stage and above. As a result, we generally require applicants to have at least three credits (unless working in a traditionally uncredited role). If you strongly feel you would still benefit from the training, please email USF@screenskills.com so we can assess if an exception should be made.

We are committed to ensuring all our courses are accessible to everyone. This course is designed to be as interactive as possible. Please email the above address if you have any access requirements and we will be delighted to help, be that clarifying the form such interaction is likely to take or discussing reasonable adjustments.

What it covers

• Brief refresher on copyright law
• Why a programme maker might wish to rely on fair dealing
• Explanation of the different heads of fair dealing, with examples
• How to credit
• Fair dealing material from social media
• Fair dealing and music
• Fair dealing and sports footage
• Fair dealing in drama
• Fair use and when a joint UK/US review might be necessary
• The interplay between fair-dealing advice and insurance
• When fair dealing might be helpful in an ‘await claim’ situation
• Practical tips
  There will also be plenty of opportunities to ask questions.

Trainer

Louise Lambert is a specialist media content lawyer and a director of Reviewed & Cleared, a media law practice advising clients globally on every legal issue they may encounter in the creation and publication of content.  With more than 20 years’ experience working in the media industry, Louise undertakes a broad range of content work, advising across all media platforms, from film and TV to podcasts, magazines, newspapers, online publications and books.

How to apply

This session will take place online via Zoom. Click ‘apply now’ at the top of the page and follow the instructions to apply for your place: you must login or register before you are able to complete your application.

If you need additional support to complete your application or require the application form in an alternative format please contact USF@screenskills.com

Places on these free online courses are limited and applications are often highly competitive. To stand the best chance of securing a place, please be sure to consider the following:

• When asked to list your three most recent credits, please include the programme title and your job role.
• When asked what you hope to gain from the course, please be concise but ensure you cover the specific elements of the topic you would like to gain knowledge of and what gaps in your skillset you believe the course may address. A rewording of the course title or a general comment on career progression does not tell us much about how this course would benefit you.

If you are no longer able to attend, we ask you to please use the “decline ticket” function on the right hand side of the page so that we can release your place. Our sessions are often oversubscribed, so we’d like to give other freelancers the opportunity to fill available spots. Thank you for your consideration.

This session is supported by the ScreenSkills Unscripted TV Skills Fund which invests in training for the unscripted workforce thanks to contributions from broadcasters, SVoDs and production companies.

This course would normally cost participants to attend, but thanks to this support, we are able to offer it to you for free. If you fail to attend, we reserve the right to request reimbursement of costs, unless your place can be taken by someone else.