ChristineCB

Except where copyrights allowed, and then it would be EXACTLY as easy as technology allows. But you're right, there are TONS of excuses not to seek to share art. Bury it. Deep six it. Gee - I just wonder why BFI is even bothering?!! Tons of excuses NOT to...

Fellwanderer

I'm with Christine on this one.

I see little point in producing a work of art and then preventing people from seeing it through inertia - or idiocy.

All the best
FELL

A signature is no substitute for a life

penfold

Then you have to petition the copyright holders...they, and only they, are in a position to exploit or allow others to exploit the holder's work. The BFI can't publish (and this is what we are talking here, however small-scale) anything they fancy, any more than I can republish a Terry Pratchett novel because I happen to own a copy....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

ChristineCB

Oh, I agree. With any luck, in 50 or 100 more years, the copyright holders can brag about holding pristine never-exercised copyrights. They will have no clue about the properties involved, nor will any audience who might know about properties be left alive.

But boy oh boy, they've got those oh-so-clean copyrights! More power to them. I know I'll do my part to make sure more art is buried and lost and forgotten, just as those copyright holders desire.

I was assuming that BFI was only going to show films that were allowed by copyright to be displayed. I'd hate for BFI to allow art to be spread without copyright approval.

image45

copyright law, you had to raise the Ugle monster of this happening once again. The amount of films and TV shows we can not see because of this!

"Seya next time!"

tvden

I am absolutely fed up with this damed copyright law preventing law abiding citizens from viewing old stuff !!! my club has some old BBC films about making television parts ect, these would have a very limited audience they have tried to get copyright clearence from the Beeb but they just dont want to know, by the time some of this copyright stuff is shown we will all be dead

penfold

Have you tried contacting Kaleidoscope? Three or four times a year they put on weekends of archive television, in Shropshire , for charity (RNLI usually) and as it is for charity the rights tend to be waived after negotiation...might be a way to get them screened...and you could tap in to their existing fanbase too....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

theuofc

For everyone eagerly awaiting the opening of the BFI Mediatheque on 14 March, I had an unexpected treat viewing of it Thursday night after the Jessie Matthews' screening. A few friends and I accidentally opened the wrong door and found outselves looking down at the Mediatheque vast open space all chrome and steel in the process of being polished for the opening. I must say that the space with its airy, floor-to-ceiling windows look won-der-ful After our good look, the guard ushered us out through the right door, this time.

The Jessie Matthews' Tribute continues tonight with Evergreen which is sold out, but there are other JM films. In her heyday, she was a glorious dancer and luminous presence on screen.

All the best,

Barbara

Dirk_Bogarde_Brigage - a Yahoo group

sippog

The issues of copyright and distribution have already had precedents set by the row over the file-sharing of music. As always, it's less to do with rights of the artist and much more to do with the "middle men" - the distributors, record companies, etc. Interesting to note that, after adopting a Canute-like attitude for a while, these are finally beginning to bow to the realities of the digital age and overwhelming market forces.
Music, books and even films cost nothing to produce once they are digitised, Musicians don't need record companies any more. They can distribute their work freely over the web and charge next to nothing for it because they are tapping into a much bigger global market than ever before. Economies of scale make this possible.

Companies should be embracing this. The surest way to stamp out any kind of black marketeering is to make it unprofitable to pursue. Instead we see them clinging to the past - charging unrealistic prices for their goods. Why pay, for example, two thirds of the price of a printed copy of a book to download a digital version?

The familiar argument that rare films are not worth bringing out on DVD because the demand is not big enough only applies if you stick with the outdated model of distribution. I'd like to see legalised bit-torrent sites making archive material freely available and I'm willing to bet it would be profitable too. I know for a fact there are many film directors who would like the public to have access to work that is currently mouldering away unseen.

Although I welcome the BFI Mediatheque ( and I'm lucky enough to actually live close enough to one), I still think an opportunity has been missed. It would be far more exciting and groundbreaking to put this material on-line. The BFI has done this in a small way with other stuff, and I'm sure there are obstacles, but they should try to find a way to do more.

tvden

Sippog I quite agree with all you say regarding old material, why indeed leave this stuff to rot when it could be distributed on line for perhaps a modest fee, better than mouldering away methinks !! and I am convinced that people would flock to buy it, with myself at the front of the que

MrT

When copyright holders (whoever they are) leave their films unexploited they are not earning one single penny in royalties - they just prevent others from using the films. So it is hard to swallow that arguement that by making such films available the rights of the copyright holders are being trampled on. The truth of course is that for many UK films shot in the 30s the current copyright holders are unknown or untraceable - what The Gowers report has defined as "orphan" works. Whilst this does not apply to all films of that era, the Gowers Report has very sensibly suggested that the existing Copyright laws should be relaxed for Orphan Works - if this is passed by the eec and becomes UK law, at last this ridiculous copyright strangehold might be broken and make such films more available. It seems so tragic that large parts of our film heritage are in danger of being lost completely, and one can only hope that common sense will ultimately prevail.

Mike (MrT)

penfold

That would be interesting....a sort of 'Squatters Rights' situation applied to films would indeed free up material for exploitation...we'll have to wait and see. However, who is going to finance a film restoration project for expoitation when someone else could do the same with their copy of the print....it may not be a panacaea to our ills I'm afraid.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

tvden

and of course there again there is all this bootleg film stuff going on over at ebay with sellers stating its all in the public domain !!! I don't think some of this stuff is and some sellers have be chucked off, but the point I am making is that at least its being made available for people to see again, what is the point of all this copyright stuff never seeing the light of day and I include the BBC as being one of the worst perpetrators in this, I suppose I should not say this but I don't care where the stuff comes from as long as I can look at it again, this copyright situation has gone on long enough its about time it was sorted out.

orpheum

I have just come back from spending Sunday morning at the Mediatheque.I had mixed results.The Item i most wanted to see was the Crazy gang at the Victoria Palace.Alas it was like bad streaming.Initially it was out of sync then the picture started freezing and then the system went haywire.the attendant who i called over admitted that there were teething problems with some items.I decided to look at a number of shorts,particularly as there were no rare features from the 30s or 40s.There are some interesting pre war colour shorts.I decided to conclude by looking at the archive restoration of "The Informer"(1929)Fortunately i have this film so didnt need to watch the whole film.Just as well since within a couple of minutes of starting the same bad streaming effect occured.I would have thought that it would have been reasonable to suppose that all items going on the system would be checked.Apparently around 50 hours per month will go on the system.So i think i will go back in around 4 months time.By the way at long last the bookshop has been restored.So go and try it and see for yourselves

Mediatheque

Hi Orpheum, as hopefully the Mediatheque attendant will have informed you, this weekend we had to work from a back-up video player that didn't enable steady streaming of all material. We didn't have a testing period for the technology prior to opening, so it's being upgraded on an almost daily basis.

We'll be adding new features to the Mediatheque all the time, but our priority is to make available the widest range of material - not just feature films.