Television Archiving

About as wrong as it is possible to be about intellectual property.

The Copyright Office and the Section 108 Working Group will be holding hearings in Los Angeles next week. Ensuring a diversity of viewpoints at the meeting would be a good thing, and if you’re a reader of this blog, it’d be good to meet you there.

There is a tendency to dismiss those who argue against DRM as naive purists (or communists), but Cory Doctorow’s recent post, Google Video DRM: Why is Hollywood more important than users? argues cogently against Google’s approach to video: Google’s DRM has the potential to drastically re-shape the contours of copyright law, turning a few entertainment [...]

Andy Oram has an article up on on the O’Reilly site about the potential effects of the webcasting treaty. There’s a new restriction on content waiting in the wings–a “webcaster’s right” that allows websites to control the dissemination of content they put up. With this new privilege, they’ll be able to prevent retransmission even if [...]

This has been in my queue for a couple of days. The broadcast flag threatens to make archiving digital television very difficult, if not impossible. The EFF is asking for people to write to congress about this. ======== Stopping the Signal: Broadcast Flag Update #2 October 10, 2005 Not long ago we updated you on [...]

James Boyle had a great piece in the Financial Times about the webcast treaty, which will give archivists another layer of rights to contend with as they attempt to preserve and make accessible what is shown on television, whether it is via traditional broadcast networks or the Internet.

Ed Felton’s commentary about MovieLabs hits the nail bang on the head.

J.D. Lasica, author of Darknet, Hollywood’s War Against the Digital Generation, has a page up documenting requests to and refusals from studios for the use of clips in a home movie project.

Carrie McLaren has a great piece the difficulty of clearing rights for Mad Hot Ballroom. An excerpt: “When Agrelo and Sewell were filming boys playing foosball after school, Ronnie (right) at one point shouted, “Everybody dance now!”, a line from a C+C Music Factory hit. Incredibly, the filmmakers’ lawyer said the line had to be [...]

The EFF cites a Communications Daily story that the MPAA may not ask for a Broadcast Flag provision in the digital television legislation now pending in the House. The story also cites a Congressional Research Service report that “raises concerns that the broadcast flag’s technological limitations could hinder activities normally deemed ‘fair use’ under copyright [...]

I’m a little late pointing this editorial by the MPAA’s CEO Dan Glickman, which concludes “In the end, it will be the consumers who suffer the most if the broadcast flag is not mandated for the digital era.” But consumers aren’t asking for the broadcast flag. Neither are independent video producers, librarians, or archivists. Glickman [...]

Last week’s court ruling against the broadcast flag is great news for archivists, librarians, the public, and technology companies. The fight against DRM on the public airwaves isn’t over though. Broadcasters will be pursuing legislative solutions — it is always easier and cheaper to buy congressional support than to change monopolistic business models — and [...]

Katie Dean has another good story out, this one about the effect of music licenses on DVD re-issues that leads “WKRP in Cincinnati was one of the most popular television shows of the late ’70s and early ’80s, but it is unlikely ever to be released on DVD because of high music-licensing costs.” Other shows [...]

Seventeen computer scientists have filed a brief in the MGM v. Grokster case, arguing that P2P technology should not be legally restricted. “Because Petitioners seek a remedy that will hobble advances in technology, while they have other means to obtain relief for infringement, amici ask the Court to affirm the judgment below.”

The EFF and Public Knowledge have set up a web site, orphanworks.org, to encourage people to file comments about the handling and legal status of orphan works. Comments are due March 25. From the Orphan Works site: When you can’t find copyright holders, copyright becomes a quagmire. Let’s fix it. For designers, academics, artists, musicians, [...]