CITY LIGHTS on LA TV

In Los Angeles, radio station KZLA 93.9 has a television commercial on that includes old, silent film clips. This footage is used because it is public domain footage, cheap to duplicate and easy to use to get an idea across. But one of the clips used IS NOT public domain. It is the January calendar shot from CITY LIGHTS, where the days of the calendar fly away from its holder.

They probably figured that nobody would recognize such a quick shot. ( they were wrong! ) They must have also thought that it would be perfectly OK to use the shot because of the 'fair use' law, allowing short clips of footage to be used for no fee from the owners. Yet, it does bring up a question; would the Chaplin estate or Interama try to stop its inclusion in the commercial?

I don't know what they'd do. I wouldn't do much more than send a letter warning the perpetrater that this was copyrighted material, if I bothered to do that. It's possible they got the clip from a stock footage supplier and didn't know the source.

Calendar shots were pretty commonly used in early films to indicate passage of time, probably before CL and very often after. It's possible that the stock footage supplier didn't know the source either, since they often acquire material in a fragmentary state.

A clip incorporating the Chaplin image would be a more serious matter.

Connie K.

Regional advertising agencies often 'steal' copyrighted music and images in their commercials with two hopes: One, that their usage won't be detected by the copyright owners, and, two, that if they are caught, they will merely be issued cease-and-desist orders. They are usually successful. However, it is usually somewhat suicidal for advertisers in large markets like LA, NY and Chicago to infringe these copyrights.

Radio stations have tremendous leeway concerning the use of music in advertisements for the station. They can usually use images from videos without fear. This is less out of any legal right than the fact that artists and labels aren't likely to sue one of their major sources of promotion. Although I am not an expert on the subject of 'fair use,' I have spent many years as a broadcast producer, I would have strongly advised against using any footage from 'City Lights' in any city

That is almost definitely the case. The estate should pursue the station if only to find out where they got the footage!