Davis Guggenheim makes Creative Commons release
Davis Guggenheim's "TEACH" documentary is now available online for free to the public through a Creative Commons license. The film chronicles outstanding teachers in South Central L.A. and the difference they make. Professor Larry Lessig and Elisabeth Shue hosted a screening this evening in San Francisco.
The film is released under an attribution/no derivatives/non-commercial license. Guggenheim commented that this license enables him to preserve the integrity of the film, and his promise to the parents and youth he filmed, while allowing for mass distribution. He also commented that the rightsholder in the film, PBS, wasn't doing anything with it, and thus with its cooperation the message of the film could now reach and inspire new audiences to consider the teaching profession. It seems important that this director who has both critical acclaim and commercial success has chosen this release approach for this film.
See this Copyright Office report, on Rights Expression Languages, which includes a discussion of the Creative Commons license tools.
Info on our involvement with CC here.
Cathy Kirkman is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California. Her practice focuses on intellectual