1. Yoko Ono, Filmmakers Caught in 'Expelled' Flap

Comment #162398 by maureen on April 16, 2008 at 9:40 pm

I work in the film industry and know that although these guys may be dumb, they're not dumb enough to think this would fly.

They didn't license this on purpose - it's a costly publicity stunt. I'm sure they have a huge line item category called 'lawsuits' in their budget. There is no such thing as a "momentary use" and anyone in the biz knows this. Every film is required to carry E&O (errors & omission) insurance. It usually covers the film up to 1 million dollars but you must provide a statement saying that you have obtained all of the necessary clearances so that your coverage is clean and that there are no exclusions. No distributor (foreign, domestic, TV, dvd sales, etc.) will pick up your film if there are exclusions. I just wonder if the insurance would even kick in on this kind of thing if you blatantly didn't obtain the license. I have never had that issue because I, like everyone else in this business, practice good ethics when it comes to licensing copyrighted material. We license, pay and credit the artists their due. I thought Christians were supposed to be honest? I will do some digging with insurance companies and see what the ramifications are.