The latest Finnish journal Ethnologia Fennica (2006, vol. 33) includes an article called “Searching for a 9,5mm Family - Aspects on the Privacy of Home Movies” in which I have discussed ethical questions concerning home movies. As an example, I have had the old French films described here at the blog.
The following text fragment is a direct quotation from my article:
”The main purpose of the following article is to consider two important themes connected with amateur film material. Firstly, what it means when we say that amateur films are private and intimate and secondly, ethical questions which are closely linked with the privacy. In general, these themes should be handled in nearly every project concerned with amateur footage. Who owns the copyright? How can I use material so private and intimate? Or can I use it at all?
Ethical problems become even more essential in the context of anonymous films as is the case in this article. Do I have any rights to use material found on an internet auction for my research? Is it ethically suitable to establish a webblog with images, examples and information written on films like I have done? And furthermore: what makes the situation of the films in question difficult is that they have been shot in France and now they are in Finland. Shall we thus handle them under the Finnish or French law? Are they Finnish or French films?”
In the text, I have made a difference between ethical questions and law. The paragraphs of the copyright law may state that particular films can be used for example in research but ethical consideration and the respect of privacy may turn the situation upside down.
In the end of the article, I write as follows:
”The establishing of the web blog has helped me to find some glues on the origins of the films in question even though at the same time I have put myself into a questionable position especially from the ethical point of view. However, without the blog the films would have remained mute – just a collection of small film reels from the distant past and place. The blog has enabled French genealogists and amateur historians to participate the project, to recognize places, buildings and persons thus helping me to get closer to the original family. Whether I will be able to donate the films to the descendants of the original family or to some French film archive while my journey to the filmed places in France – it will be revealed in the future.”
Tenkanen, Salla (2006): “Searching for a 9,5mm Family - Aspects on the Privacy of Home Movies”. Ethnologia Fennica, vol. 33, pp. 24-31.
