Documentary filmmaker Jon Else could not afford to include a 4.5-second incidental shot of The Simpsons in his film because Fox demanded $10,000 in licensing fees, forcing him to digitally replace it, illustrating how copyright law makes derivative cultural works prohibitively expensive even when the use would clearly be fair use.

factualpending

Speaker

Lawrence Lessig

Evidence Quote

Fox "wanted ten thousand dollars as a licensing fee for us to use this four-point-five seconds of ... entirely unsolicited Simpsons which was in the corner of the shot."

Source

Free culture
Created: 8/13/2026, 2:35:01 AM

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