Permission for vid shows/parties?

[damned_colonial]

In late May, at WisCon (a feminist science fiction convention with a strong contingent of fanwork-friendly media fans), were_duck and I will be hosting a vid party. It's not a very formal event -- we'll just have a room and we'll be playing a bunch of vids we like or that people have recommended to us. We're thinking we'll open with an intro to vidding and some show-and-tell, and then at a certain time of evening we'll declare it "party time!" and just play vids from a playlist on one of our laptops.

Our plan at present is to attempt to contact vidders to ask for their blessing to show their vids in this situation. If anyone says "no, please don't" we won't. But if we can't get in touch with people, or they don't reply, we're thinking we'll assume it's OK as long as the vid was publicly posted (i.e. not on a password protected website).

Does this sound reasonable? We're open to suggestions if there's a better way of going about it.

ETA: if you'd like to pre-emptively give us permission to use your vids, and save us some legwork, please do ;)

Comments

[laurashapiro]

For me, yes, always, anything posted publicly is fair game.

I think asking permission is appreciated in fannish circles, but I also think that, if you've done due diligence in trying to contact the person, it's okay to show anything that's publicly available.

JMO. YMMV. Offer not valid for residents of Guam.

[morgandawn]

re due diligence - that's why I suggested they also post this in the vidding LJ so they reach as many vidders as possible.

[laurashapiro]

Yep, very sensible.

[morgandawn]

post to the vidding LJ is you are trying to reach vidders and get their input. not many vidders are reading here.

PS. if you plan to show my vids, feel free. just let me know if you do choose (and if you need a better quality copy than the small divx file).

[trouble]

This makes me even more sad that I can't get to WisCon this year. WOE. :(

But I'm glad y'all are doing it!