Free Lunch
reading boingboing today, i find this statement from the Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement about how they support the copyright defying screenings of Eyes on the Prize.
if you haven't been following this, the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) has been sponsoring an act of civil disobedience in which groups (school and otherwise) are screening Eyes on the Prize, the award winning civil rights documentary. why is it illegal to screen Eyes on the Prize? because it contains copyrighted material that the producers can no longer afford to re-license. such as MLK singing "happy birthday."
so ferget it! pay up or you can't show the movie! to schoolkids. to, uh, educate them about civil rights. unless you GIVE ME MY MONEY.
why am i writing about this again? two reasons. the first is because the VoCRM is saying, if i may summarize, "fuck you, the man." or, in slightly longer form:
To us, knowledge is a human right every bit as important as the right to vote and the right be treated with courtesy and respect. Therefore, we do not believe that reading, or viewing, or listening is, or should ever become, a crime. Nor should access to information become a luxury sold only to the wealthy.
the second reason? i had a fantasy about this very thing last night.
of course, i was not thinking about Eyes on the Prize. i was thinking about Batman.
after watching the awfully dark and awfully good Buffy episode, "The Body" with bartlebee, i remembered i wanted to share Dark Knight with her. it's also awfully dark and awfully good.
so i dug it out of my comic boxes and, while she was knitting, started reading it again. it's so good that it made me mad. why are we forced to watch crappy batman movies starring arnold schwarzengger as mister freeze?
no. someone should make The Dark Knight Returns into a movie. they should make it and release it on the web and ask viewers to send a buck to an off-shore holding account. send frank miller his cut, sure. why should a company own batman? sure, they invested money in building the brand, but they also reaped the reward of that with all the crap they've already sold to children.
i don't feel like ranting today. just take my word for it. ownership is stupid.
also, studies show that copyright royalties aren't enough for artists to live on anyway. all that money just goes to Sony or Fox or RCA. so they can create sensations like Jessica Simpson.
free the information! anarchy now! tear up the freeways! burn your bras! more leopard print everywhere! mandatory mango sundaes!
do you ever, you know, start blogging about something and then realize you've blogged yourself into a hole?
that never happens to me.
i need a damn-tastic massage. anyone care to recommend a masseuse? one who can really get in there and do a hostage negotiation with my muscles.
let. the man. go. you are surrounded. come out with your hands up. we will give you a mango sundae and let you watch eyes on the prize.
no, you cannot play batman in the movie.
do you really want the dark knight ruined by some bad fanboy movie? you're spoiled by raiders adaptation, man, not everything turns out like that. in fact, most stuff is shitty. open source doesn't really apply to things like movies and books.
or does it?
can you be happy that the new batmobile in the new batman movie looks like the dark knight tank?
well, was it okay for that woman to write "The Wind Done Gone"? to take characters from Gone with the Wind and write a story from a black woman's pov?
did that take anything away from Gone with the Wind? hurt its sales? sully its trademark?
what about South Park spoofing Lord of the Rings or Passion of the Christ?
does doing something first mean you get to charge everyone else who wants to follow in your footsteps? forever?
can you really trademark Happy Birthday? i mean, this whole ownership thing has gone too far. i think the whole concept needs renegotiation.
i wasn't thinking bad fanboy movie. i was thinking full-budget feature made outside of hollywood. i was thinking about returning value to content, not content delivery.
i think you're waiting for the bollywood version of the dark knight returns. now *that* would kick ass.
damn.
you are so right.