The Documentary Is Done, But You Can't Watch It
from the how-nice dept
Documentary makers who are on limited budgets have apparently had to make "shortcuts" when licensing archival footage, sometimes meaning that the footage they're using can only be used for a few years. What that means is that certain award-winning documentaries can no longer be shown. While the filmmakers obviously knew what they were getting into when they signed the license deal, this does begin to show some of the sillier sides of content protection like this. It's basically saying that you can "rent an idea." Content is an idea. Once it's out there, you can't put it back in the box -- but with licensing programs, that's exactly what people are trying to do. The end result is that people end up having completed, historically significant documentaries that no one can watch because it breaks the law.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
What?!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Godwin's law
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
Archival imagery is both tangible and corporeal. It exists as film, tape, or digital files. It can be copied and manipulated.
The usual rant that copyright enforcement stifles the free exchange of ideas is either just wrong or deliberate sophistry, depending on the cleverness of the ranter.
People who make something own it and all rights associated with it. They can sell or rent those rights as they choose. Copyright law recognizes and enforces those rights, but it certainly does not create them. If copyright law vanished, I'd still have the right to decide who gets to copy my manuscript.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]