Dive into the archives.
- "Easy Streaming Movies"
I want candy, PLEASE… [more]
- Remix, Reuse: New Rights Models at Silverdocs
The internet has made copyright issues complicated enough for filmmakers wanting to make money distributing their films. For documentary filmmakers, the issues around fair use and copyright have always been a counterbalance to their own impulse to protect their creative work. At SILVERDOCS this past weekend, panelists tried to sort out some of the emerging issues in the complicated arena of copyright law. One issue that emerged is the challenge to actually get proper licences for works that because of digital duplication are now often difficult to trace to a legal source. USC School of
- Make mine a TiVo
Today, thanks to BuisnessofVideo.com I attended the eMERGING MEDIA FORUM, a day-long conference presented by BMO Capital Markets and featuring talks from CEOs of such internet media and tech companies as BitGravity, BitTorrent, TiVo, GridNetworks, and MLB.com. Though I anticipated Doug Walker from BitTorrent would be the most interesting to indie filmmakers, as it turned out, it was Tom Rogers from TiVo who really… [more]
- A movie or a measure
Over at Digital Cinema Report, IndiePix prez Bob Alexander has a column about the “New Era for Independent Film.” Among his points:
- Over the last 3 months, the indie distribution business has seen some major shifts, either towards elimination of specialty divisions at studios (Warner Independent, New Line, Picturehouse); financial instability (THINKFilm); or consolidation of cable markets for indie film (Sundance @ Cablevision).
- With the expenses of theatrical, it will be too costly to put indie films in theatres.
- Traditional indie distributors don’t have a plan for this end-of-theatrical marketplace.
- The new era will allow
- Cost-benefit protections
The folks over at TechDirt responded today to the discussion at Cato Unbound regarding copywrite that I discussed earlier. In their incredulous reaction to the idea that copyright is still viable (or at least to the article by Doug Lichtman, a law professor at UCLA on the subject), they offer their own “helpful hints” for saving the movie business.What’s interesting about these suggestions is that they suggest that even the savviest tech types are still under the impression that theatrical revenues are either particularly significant for most releases or that… [more]
- Here Comes… Trouble?
Clay Shirky’s new book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations is not specifically about media distribution (it’s more generally about how social networks and their emergence on the internet have affected culture and business development) but it does deliver this metaphor:When reproduction, distribution, and categorization were all difficult, as they were for the last five hundred years, we needed professionals to undertake these jobs, and we properly venerated these people for the service they performed. Now these tasks are simpler, and the earlier roles in some cases have become optional, and are sometimes obstacles… [more]
- Breakin’ the LAW
Are you a “criminal”? Or are you influenced by over-the-top rhetoric? Either way, you might want to head over to OpenSourceCinema where you can voice your opinions photographically.HT: Agnes Varnum
- Politics II: Watermarkworld
Tim Lee has posted his response to Rasmus Fleischer’s proposal to ditch copyright law at Cato Unbound, making the hardly strident but accurate point that copyright law is still functional outside the digital realm.In that domain, a reader comments on my earlier post: I think the general consensus among folk who study this stuff is that watermarking — and a variety of schemes have been floated for years now — isn’t really going to be that helpful. The large-scale distribution content firms worry about, as on p2p networks, typically involves skilled geeks who can strip away… [more]
- Hot & Steamy: INTERVIEW: Kyle Schickner, Director of STEAM
Festivals have been a hot topic in the blogosphere as of late for their role in the distribution landscape. Recently, Jonathan Marlow of Green Cine Daily caused a bit of a stir when he suggested that festivals, which have replaced traditional theatrical as a distribution mechanism for indies and docs, start ponying up part of their ticket sales to filmmakers. AJ Schnack, DIY Filmmaker Sujewa and several others got into the fray, arguing that festivals provide benefits to filmmakers that go beyond screening fees. (It’s my opinion that this all should work on a kind of… [more]
- The politcs of reproduction
Digital distribution isn’t just a quandary for filmmakers or “the industry”- politicians are worried about it too. Just how copyright law can be maintained, transformed, or judged gratuitous is something that the Congress is grappling with (though unsurprisingly, not in a very productive way).Over at think tank Cato’s Unbound, which operates in a kind of debate format, Rasmus Fleischer has posted his argument as to why the entire Copyright law is superfluous, essentially because in the digital age, all media is so easy to copy that it is not possible to protect works from being duplicated… [more]
