Since the issues surrounding rights and fair use come up at The COW all the dang time, from various perspectives, here are some of my very favorite web resources.
The Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center has a heavily scholarly orientation, maybe moreso than you'll find useful. But the coverage here is certainly exhaustive.
One of the coolest things about it is a free, digitized version of Stanford's Lawrence Lessig, called Free Culture. He's been a pioneer on rights in the electronic age from pretty much the beginning, and has fought vigorously against the rapidly diminishing rights that we have, both as creators and consumers of media. Gotta love this:
As more and more culture becomes digitized, more and more becomes controllable, even as laws are being toughened at the behest of the big media groups. What's at stake is our freedom--freedom to create, freedom to build, and ultimately, freedom to imagine.
Like I said, you can download a free copy of the book with rights to reuse and remix for non-commercial purposes, so he's putting his money where his mouth is.
If you're going to get into a fight about rights, definitely better to know the real lay of the land. Even if you're not a scholar, definitely a site worth checking out.
More oriented toward practice than legal underpinnings or broad social examples, the Center for Social Media at American University is amazing. They offer what they call "Fair Use and Free Speech Resources." Note that they, like Lessig, equate the two.
Some great articles for documentarians in particular. Although this one is from 2005, it's got great information on efforts to expand the rights of documentary filmmakers wrt copyrighted materials. In the meantime, this article describes best practices for fair use as defined today.
People ask all the time about where copyright fades into the public domain. The guidelines are pretty clear, and you can see them here.
I could continue, but you get the idea. There's no reason for you to have any major questions about rights, and certainly no excuse for crossing the line. These two sites will help shine a light on the right path forward.
Digg it
Another great Stanford resource for doc filmmakers
The Center for Internet and Society Documentary Film Program:
The Documentary Film Program provides filmmakers with information about fair use, access to insurance for liability arising out of copyright litigation, and access to lawyers who will defend copyright claims pro bono or at reduced rates.
Laura
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