Update on legal issues.

After worrying about all the faces that were shown in the film as well as issues of copyright, etc., I finally did some research and have found some promising information.

Specifically, we had a plethora of photographs displaying not only young Khanh and young Hai but also their parents, their siblings, their foster parents, and their foster siblings. We've obtained the signatures of Youme, Hai, Khanh, and her family, but had no luck with any of the subjects peopling Hai's scrapbook photographs shown in the documentary. Fearful of being sued (for what little money I have), I read up on this issue and found that we are safe from using these photographs still.

The law that pertains to this issue is the "right of publicity," which isn't a federal but a state law. In Illinois, according to rightofpublicity.com, section 1075/10 states that "the right to control and to choose whether and how to use an individual’s identity for commercial purposes is recognized as each individual’s right of publicity."

The key phrase here is "commercial purposes." Section 5 of the act defines "commercial purposes as "the public use or holding out of an individual’s identity (i) on or in connection with the offering for sale or sale of a product, merchandise, goods, or services; (ii) for purposes of advertising or promoting products, merchandise, goods, or services; or (iii) for the purpose of fundraising.
"Identity" means any attribute of an individual that serves to identify that individual to an ordinary, reasonable viewer or listener, including but not limited to (i) name, (ii) signature, (iii) photograph, (iv) image, (v) likeness, or (vi) voice."

Now, because Nuoc is not involved in selling, offering, or endorsing any products or services, the film is far from having a commercial purpose.

To further distance Nuoc from anything that Act 1075 covers, I will list what the act DOES NOT cover:

"(1) use of an individual’s identity in an attempt to portray, describe, or impersonate that individual in a live performance, a single and original work of fine art, play, book, article, musical work, film, radio, television, or other audio, visual, or audio-visual work, provided that the performance, work, play, book, article, or film does not constitute in and of itself a commercial advertisement for a product, merchandise, goods, or services;
(2) use of an individual’s identity for non-commercial purposes, including any news, public affairs, or sports broadcast or account, or any political campaign;"

This reading of the actual Illinois common law for rights of publicity defines Nuoc as exempt from any individual attempting to sue us for commercially exploiting their image. Not mentioning any of their names also helps our cause, as the story is really about Hai and Khanh. The full law can be found here: http://rightofpublicity.com/statutes/illinios

Also, a press release by Center for Social Media, an organization that helps in particular documentary filmmakers, states that "For most documentary projects, filmmakers don’t have to be concerned about the
so-called “right of publicity” that exists under some state laws. The cases (and
sometimes the statutes themselves) make it clear that the right bars only the
commercial exploitation of celebrities’ “persona,” and First Amendment-
protected expressive uses are specifically exempted."

Their website is: http://centerforsocialmedia.org/ and the press release can be downloaded here: http://centerforsocialmedia.org/sites/default/files/free_use_1.pdf

I'm still doing some research regarding that Vietnamese song that is used at the beginning of the documentary and will update you guys more.

Enjoy the weekend!