FOIA Request Unveils Secret CIA-Produced Documentary About CIA Agents Captured & Held In China For Decades

from the what's-the-copyright-status? dept

Fri, Jun 3rd 2011 3:23pm — Mike Masnick

This is fascinating. Apparently, a US plane with CIA agents on board flew into China in 1952, trying to recover a spy in that country. However, the plane went down, and the Chinese captured the two CIA agents who survived the crash... and then kept them until 1971 and 1973. That, in itself, is an interesting story. But making it even more interesting is that the CIA had a professional documentary made about the story (including reenactments), intended for internal audiences within the CIA. Yet, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Associated Press, the CIA is now planning to release the entire (short) movie on YouTube. Of course, as a work created by the government, it should be in the public domain, though I'm curious to see if that's officially acknowledged anywhere.

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Filed Under: cia, documentary, freedom of information

13 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2011 @ 3:28pm

No, the AP will try to (wrongfully) hold the 'rights' to it, since they made the request.
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- Marcus Carab (profile), 3 Jun 2011 @ 3:32pm
  
  Re:
  They have a copy of the video already, that they may release, but the CIA is putting it directly on their YouTube channel soon, so I don't think AP will try to claim anything.
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A Dan (profile), 3 Jun 2011 @ 3:43pm

Public domain
So we can remix it and make our own versions as we see fit?
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- Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2011 @ 3:54pm
  
  Re: Public domain
  Derivative works?
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- Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2011 @ 3:55pm
  
  Re: Public domain
  (perhaps we can mix it with other videos made by the government. Make a sort of remix)?
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Joseph Durnal, 3 Jun 2011 @ 4:13pm

It's online now
Interesting so far, I wonder if it can hold my attention for a full hour.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ciagov?ob=5#p/u/0/Z0Mh7EiXRJI
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that_id (profile), 3 Jun 2011 @ 5:19pm

So Disney will try to copyright the terms 'CIA, China, youtube...'
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- Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 3 Jun 2011 @ 7:12pm
  
  Re: So Disney will try to copyright the terms 'CIA, China, youtube...'
  Since when did Disney try to copyright �terms�?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2011 @ 7:16pm
    
    Re: Re: So Disney will try to copyright the terms 'CIA, China, youtube...'
    I think the other poster is referring to when they applied for a trademark for "Seal Team Six"
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    - Hephaestus (profile), 4 Jun 2011 @ 11:40am
      
      Re: Re: Re: So Disney will try to copyright the terms 'CIA, China, youtube...'
      /sarc, me thinks
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Wolfy, 4 Jun 2011 @ 10:13am

"The Puzzle Palace" was written by James Bamford with documents that became declassified by internal criteria. It's a very interesting look into the world of TS/SCI. This book was singlehandedly responsible for a whole new classification scheme that almost ensures that any document, once classified, will never become declassified in the future.
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DannyB (profile), 4 Jun 2011 @ 12:23pm

should be in the public domain
> Of course, as a work created by the government,
> it should be in the public domain

Mike, you must be behind the times. Haven't you heard?

There's no value in the public domain.

:-)
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- The eejit (profile), 4 Jun 2011 @ 1:16pm
  
  Re: should be in the public domain
  .public=.thief
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