Friday, December 27, 2002

A Peek at History, Piracy-Free. Media company British Pathe, which produced 3,500 newsreels between 1910 and 1970, puts its entire collection online. But rather than adding digital copyright protection, the company simply stamped its logo on each downloadable clip. By Patrick Di Justo. [Wired News] 8:24:21 AM    comment []

2002 Is Movie Industry's Best Year. Los Angeles Times: "Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, said that although the population is larger today, this year's surge is "stunning" because of the choices technology now provides, including VCRs, cable television, satellite dishes and the Internet." That won't stop Valenti and his fellow members of the entertainment cartel from trying to derail all new technologies they don't like. This is a man who should read history. Valenti led the charge to kill the VCR, which was going to kill Hollywood. Oops, didn't happen. In fact, the VCR probably saved the studios. What's really stunning is the way the nation continues to kow-tow to these bandits, who steal from the public domain and now want to steal from our future. [ Dan Gillmor's eJournal ] 8:14:41 AM    comment []

Here is a big question:  "what is the copyright status of 'It's a Wonderful Life' ? The story surrounding this is that the copyright renewal on this fantastic movie lasped in 1974 due to a failure to renew.  As a result, it was played on dozens of cable channels at numerous times during the entire xmas season.  If there ever was an example of what happens with IP that is allowed to go to the public domain after a generous number of years, this is it.  The story was able to touch millions. Of course, that didn't mean that the Hollywood copyright cartel (the true pirates in intellectual property) wouldn't find a way to re-assert a copyright.   Now it only plays in one time slot on NBC (from what I could find).  If you miss it, too bad. We all live in Pottersville. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] 8:09:23 AM    comment []