How copyright is killing culture

Okay, this is freaking terrifying. Our past is disappearing before our
eyes. Mister Orwell, your table is ready...

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/01/17/how_copyright_is_kil.html

Cory Doctorow: Today's Globe and Mail contains an amazing, disturbing
article about documentary films that are disappearing from the world
because the filmmakers can't afford to re-clear copyrights to the archival
footage they contain.

The makers of the series no longer have permission for the archival footage
they previously used of such key events as the historic protest marches or
the confrontations with Southern police. Given Eyes on the Prize's tight
budget, typical of any documentary, its filmmakers could barely afford the
minimum five-year rights for use of the clips. That permission has long
since expired, and the $250,000 to $500,000 needed to clear the numerous
copyrights involved is proving too expensive.

This is particularly dire now, because VHS copies of the series used in
countless school curriculums are deteriorating beyond rehabilitation. With
no new copies allowed to go on sale, "the whole thing, for all practical
purposes, no longer exists," says Jon Else, a California-based filmmaker
who helped produce and shoot the series and who also teaches at the
Graduate School of Journalism of the University of California,
Berkeley.