Developing best practice codes for creative audiovisual re-use
Summary:
This project – part of the EU Horizon 2020 funded consortium reCreating Europe: Rethinking digital copyright law for a culturally diverse, accessible, creative Europe – aimed to enable creative innovation and culture-based business through the development of sector-specific codes of best practices in relation to copyright exceptions and other permitted uses of copyright works in the audiovisual (AV) field. To unlock the creative, cultural, economic, and social innovation potential deriving from the reuse of European digitised cultural heritage, the project ultimately aimed to enable creative and cultural AV sectors to make informed business decisions based on shared principles and best practices in (re)using copyrighted materials.
The reCreating Europe project has produced codes of best practices on creative reuse for two communities across two jurisdictions: documentary filmmakers and curators of immersive experiences in the UK and the Netherlands.
Following the success of the reCreating Europe initiative, the methodological approach has been extended to develop a code of fair practice for film educators in the UK, co-produced by Learning on Screen, the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, and City, University of London.
Funders:
Horizon 2020 – Rethinking digital copyright law for a culturally diverse, accessible, creative Europe (Grant Agreement No. 870626)
Team:
Bartolomeo Meletti
Principal Investigator
Martin Kretschmer
Co-Investigator
Stef van Gompel (IViR, University of Amsterdam)
Co-Investigator
Duration:
2020-2023
Outputs:
Sendra, E., and Meletti, B. (2025). ‘Copyright Law and Filmmaking’ Special Issue. In Screenworks: the journal of practice research in film and screen media, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.37186/swrks.15.2
World Intellectual Property Organization Academy Summers School on IP Law. The Best Practice Codes project was presented by Bartolomeo Meletti and Stef van Gompel at the WIPO Summer School on IP Law for two consecutive years (May 2024 and May 2025), hosted by the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management at Bournemouth University.
Can I Really Use This? Copyright Exceptions for Filmmakers (23 November 2023, The Regent Cinema, Christchurch). This major event brought together leading scholars and practitioners in the fields of filmmaking and copyright law to discuss how copyright exceptions apply to film education and filmmaking. The Codes of Best Practices for Filmmakers and for Film Educators were presented and discussed by a panel of experts composed of Prof. Tanya Aplin (Professor of IP Law at King’s College London), Elizabeth Gibson (Senior Counsel at BBC Legal), Charlie Shackleton (award-winning filmmaker) and Inge Sorensen (Senior Lecturer in Screen Industries and Media Policy at the University of Glasgow).
Meletti, B., Morrison, C, & Secker, J. (2023). Code of Fair Practice for the Use of Audiovisual Works in Film Education. Learning on Screen.
The Code for Film Educators is recommended by a variety of Higher Education institutions, including Abertay University, Birmingham City University, City St George’s University of London, Edge Hill University, London Metropolitan University, Loughborough University, Southampton Solent University, Swansea University, University of Derby, University of the Highlands and Islands, University of Hull, University of Sheffield, University of South Wales, University of St Andrews, University of Strathclyde.
Meletti, B., & van Gompel, S. (2022). Code of Best Practices on Creative Reuse for Documentary Filmmakers. Zenodo.
The Code for Documentary Filmmakers has been endorsed by the Documentary Film Council, the first national membership organisation for UK documentary film: https://documentaryfilmcouncil.co.uk/resource/code-of-best-practices-on-creative-reuse/
Meletti, B., & van Gompel, S. (2022). Code of Best Practices on Creative Reuse for Immersive Experiences. Zenodo.
Meletti, B., & van Gompel, S. (2021). D4.10 Issue reports on how copyright exceptions and other permitted uses that are relevant for documentary filmmakers and immersive digital heritage practitioners are understood in the Netherlands and the UK. Zenodo.
Summary blog, including video recording of the webinar ‘Building Copyright Literacy for a Global Community of Open Educators with the Code of Best Practice in Fair Use for OER’ (2021) – Copyright and Fair Practice in Documentary Filmmaking and Immersive Digital Heritage.