Dive into the archives.
- CopyNight & Copy/Right(?)
Two fun copyright geekery events this week. First, CopyNight returns, hosted by me and Fred Benenson at Swift Bar 34 E 4th St (between Bowery and Lafayette), tomorrow, Tuesday 4/27 at 7PMish. This is a social night which is open to anyone who likes talking IP and drinking beverages, possibly in that order.
On Saturday, Pratt hosts Copy/Right(?) a symposium about copyright, creative commons, fair use and library science. Good Times!… [more]
- The Cobbler- A new model for entertainment artists
Have an article up at QuestionCopyright.org about a new approach for filmmakers and other entertainment artists in the reproductive economy. Sample:
For the first time, it is possible for a filmmaker to make a film on a very small budget, use promotion and distribution methods that are low-cost or free, and find enough revenue to break even and possibly to support themselves in a basic fashion. It means you probably won’t become a millionaire, but in return your chances of being able to support yourself through your work go up, and they go up more the… [more]
- Free Culture, Free
You can watch the Free Culture X conference here live. The Twitter tag for the event is #fcx… [more]
- Festivals! Conferences!
Just flagging some upcoming events I’ll be attending at which I hope to see you and give you one of my new cards.
Making Your Media Matter- DC, February 11-12 “Cutting-edge practices for making your media matter”
Free Culture X- DC, February 13-14 “Free software and open standards, open access scholarship, open educational resources, network neutrality, and university patent policy”
South By Southwest- Austin, March 12-18 (Presenting a panel about event screenings and attracting audiences)
The Conversation NY- March 27 “New business and creative opportunities” in film and media… [more]
- Copyright, docs, Lessig, licenses
Recently in The National Republic, Lawrence Lessig addressed the issue of copyright in documentaries and how it is keeping classic films like Eyes on the Prize out of commercial circulation. The problem is that filmmakers must clear copyright for archival elements in their work such as television clips and music, and generally the licenses for these clips is for a limited time period like 10 or 20 years. After that time, the filmmaker would need to clear (i.e. re-license) all of the archivals again in order to sell the work.
For most docs, this can be extremely onerous… [more]
- What is the DVR of Indie Film?
On his Blog Maverick site, Mark Cuban addresses the illogic behind opposition of the DVR by big media companies like Viacom and Disney.
For some reason they want to kill off the DVR… Do you not realize that the DVR is the one device that can save all things traditional and holy to your business and stock price?… Let me ask a simple question, if everyone had a DVR that could record any and every series they liked, enabling them to watch the shows they missed immediately, why would they go to Hulu ever again?
When new technologies come along… [more]
- Digital Watermarks: Can they save copyright?
Everyone knows that illegal downloads can’t be stopped (except, maybe the MPAA, but they’ve been deluded for a while about speech issues). That could seem kind of depressing if you are a filmmaker who’s just maxxed out a few credit cards and hit up every friend you have making a movie with no obvious hope of recouping. Some people have said that we should just dump copyright altogether since it’s unenforceable. But copyright was created to protect artists who put their original ideas and execution into a work so that they could control how money… [more]
- RiP: A Remix Manifesto in the tradition of mainfestos past
I recently got a chance to check out RiP: A REMIX MANIFESTO, the Canadian documentary that takes a look at copyright (and the mashup artist Girl Talk) in a kind of method way- the producers, EYESTEELFILM, and director, Brett Gaylor decided that since the costs of licensing all the expensive music in the film would be prohibitive, and since the film was about these costs, it would essentially be fair use to go ahead and use whatever they wanted (including network footage, usually very expensive) and just see what happens.
It’s a pretty interesting concept, and though the film… [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
- 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]
