I don't see the link. There is some irony here though. While Lessing is correct that underlying copyrights on clips and songs are a big hurdle for many older documentaries, the majority are doomed by the very things Mr. Lessing has supported in terms use. I have mentioned in the past that there is a favorite older documentary of mine that I tried to interest Kino in a few years ago. The rights holder was in France and not that difficult in this case. There were no clearance issues, BUT since sales of documentaries of this kind had plummeted as folks including MANY academics just illegally downloaded them, it was hard to justify the cost. There is no doubt in my mind that if this film and others like it made it to DVD, it would ripped off including a significant amount of streaming by academic institutions. We all know a LARGE number of schools do this. Same thing applies to independent and foreign films in particular. IF rights holders could be assured of even just around 1,000 retail copies as well as some more revenue from places that would actually pay a fair price to stream it, then many more films could be released. You can't say what a shame it is that so many films are not available while at the same time claim educational institutions don't have to pay to use them outside of a physical classroom.
On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Anthony Anderson <antho...@usc.edu> wrote: > The current New Republic (February 4) contains a highly intriguing article > entitled "For the Love of Culture: Google, Copyright and Our Future." > Although > the bulk of Lawrence Lessing's article is devoted to the digitization of > books, > he spends a fair amount of his piece discussing documentary films. Older > ones- > films issued in the 1960's and 1970's. And why so many of them will almost > never > likely be released in dvd. One of the problems is the cost of physically > digitizing a film > in itself. But afar more formidable hurdle is the matter of copyright. > While the original > filmmaker most likely obtained the rights to using a copyrighted song or > archival > piece of film for her/his film, all such rights have to be re-negotiated for > a release of the film in the > digital format. Finding just who owns the rights to such material 40 years > later can > be a formidable challenge in itself, but even more formidable is the > phenomenon where > the people who own such such rights are demanding ever more more money to > allow > the material to be included in the dvd release. The costs of obtaining such > rights > can become prohibitive very quickly, making it almost impossible for any > company to > ever make back the costs in trying to selling the dvd on the market. > Especially > when factoring in how modest the sales of documentary films generally are. > And that > essentially is why so many of these older documentaries will not never turn > up on > dvd. > > I would very much urge people here take a good look at this article, make a > copy of it, > and have it ready to show a faculty member who might be unhappy when the > library > cannot possibly obtain in dvd format a fondly remembered documentary film > from 1971. > > Cheers! > Anthony > > ******************************* > Anthony E. Anderson > Social Science and Arts & Humanities Librarian > Von KleinSmid Library > University of Southern California > Los Angeles, CA 90089-0182 > (213) 740-1190 antho...@usc.edu > "Wind, regen, zon, of kou, > Albert Cuyp ik hou van jou." > ************************************ > > > > > > VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues > relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, > preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and > related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective > working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication > between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and > distributors. > > VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
