Documentary films are records of our culture. But our culture is full of legally protected objects - songs, films, signs, even logos or buildings. Sometimes filmmakers need to use pre-existing copyrighted material to tell a story. Sometimes they accidentally capture copyrighted work in their documentary footage. However,in order to distribute their documentaries, filmmakers must often clear the rights to every protected fragment of film or song - whether it is a focal point of the scene or merely an incidental or fleeting detail.