Michael Donaldson

Michael Donaldson founded Donaldson & Callif with Lisa Callif in 2008. The firm focuses on independent films, specializing in fair use opinions and other clearance issues in scripted and documentary films. In 2007, Donaldson negotiated with insurance companies to provide errors and omissions policies to cover material used pursuant to fair use. Beginning in 2009, Donaldson successfully argued to the Copyright Office at the Triennial DMCA Exemption Hearing that documentary filmmakers be exempted from criminal portions of DMCA, relating to ripping DVD’s, Blue-Ray and streaming services to obtain material to be used pursuant to fair use.