All U.S. film-makers can now crack anti-copying technologies on content ($ paywalled at law.com), if they need that content for ‘fair use’ use in a new production…

“Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemptions aren’t just for documentary filmmakers any more. The U.S. Copyright Office and Library of Congress last week broadened a DMCA exception to now allow more filmmakers to circumvent anti-copying technology and rip short video clips for purposes of commentary and criticism.”

However, it isn’t a free-for-all. Note that the PDF for the rules states that this new measure is specifically for…

“where the clip is used for parody or its biographical or historically significant nature”.

In a drama movie, the “commentary and criticism” would thus presumably be seen to be implied by the nature of the scene, rather than done in a directly academic or journalistic manner. For instance, I can imagine a dramatised scene of dancing on the beach as the Apollo 11 rocket lifts off behind the dancers. This scene would be a sort of implied commentary on the optimism engendered in the nation by the historically significant moment of sending men to the Moon. And if the high-res source needed for that was only available from Time-Life rather than NASA, then their Blu-ray disc could be cracked and a clip used as the background in the composite. Actually these days it’s probably easier to do it with 3D models and copy of Vue, but some may want the original footage — and historical personages can’t simply be conjured up in the same way.

Also, as the word “clip” is used and video is assumed in the PDF’s text, that leaves hazy the cracking of content protection to obtain a high-res still picture. A film-maker might need such a still for a Ken Burns “pan and scan” type film, and could perhaps argue that the still was required as a irreplaceable source needed to make the film’s video “clip”. But that’s probably something to be clarified in a future round of rule changes.