Article: Amid legal questions, classic shows reappear on the Web

[CrankyYankee]

Aided by the neutron star-like cultural gravity of Google's YouTube, an increasing number of vintage TV programs and early commercials are flying out of collectors' closets, ending half a century of exile from the small screen.

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-ca-webscout10jun10,0,4364560.story?coll=la-default-underdog

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[mleach]

Interesting reading !!!

I do find it both ironic and sadthat Frank Sinatra's family had several ( hundreds actually ) videos removed online. What are they thinking? Are they THAT out of touch with reality? I mean, how often does Sinatra get played on radio nowadays? The family should be happy that he is getting played at all, even it means just You Tube.

One thing I would like to see is some website that lists who owns what as far as copyrights and images are concerned. True, one can already find this info online through the copyright office but sometimes even that doesn't work. Case in point is Philadelphia TV legend Sally Starr. Awhile back someone uploaded a clip of Sallys old TV show from the late 50s/early 60s that aired on WFIL-TV onto You Tube only to have that clip taken down at the request of "Dick Clark Productions". When I heard about this, I became curious. Did some research and I couldn't find anything online that said the Dick Clark owned the rights to Sally Starr's old show.
Nothing is said about this even on Dick Clark Production's website or even on Sally's. Maybe Clark made an appearance on Sally's show. Even that turns out nothing. IMDB doesn't even have Clark listed as ever being on that show. But nonetheless he owns something when it came to that show since his company was able to successfully take down that clip. In other words their sites ( Dick Clark and Sally Starr, if she even knows ) should have a notice as to who today owns the rights of that show.

Also I never really liked the way You Tube handles these situations, when a clip is removed by a party other than the person who uploaded the clip. Now, if someone uploads last night's episode of the Simpsons online, most people already know that FOX has the power to take down that clip. But when it comes to rare stuff where people are unsure, rather than go straight to You Tube and bitch, the person/persons who does owns the rights should contact the person who uploaded the clip first by email ( or whatever ) and tell them they own the rights and give them a few days, maybe a week to take down the clip or work something out so the clip could remain online and if that route doesnt work, then contact You Tube.

 

[Markxxx]

There is no such list of what is or what is not public domain because it's hard to determain. For instance a TV show could be public domain, but the music in it is copyrighted.

You therefore have to look up on a case by case basis to see if the piece of work is in the public domain.

Other issues like "fair use" are hard to describe because it's a JUDGE that determains what is or is not "fair use," and that can vary.

Sites like YouTube, will pull pretty much anything if anyone complains because they don't want the hassle of fighting a lawsuit, which even if they win, is costly to defend. By not policing their site, YouTube (like eBay does) can claim it's only a venue and that it IS actively co-operating with copyright holders.

I agree with what Mleach wrote and I personally think the copyright is way overinfllated, especially if yoiu think that a lot of those movies made in the late 30s (Hollywood's Golden Era) were remade from public domain works that, if they existed today, would've been protected by the new copyright.

I say once someone dies, that's it, why should his heirs get rich off his work. After all if I die my wife doesn't go on collecting my salary, even though my company is still using the programs I wrote. But that's a new topic

 

[oldtimeradio]

Actually, I thought there was...

I asked one member (who works in television as a program director) about one or two old TV shows and was told that they were not available for air. The conversation then turned to some shows where a few episodes would be allowed to fall into public domain but the rest of the series would remain under copyright.

So, in my mind there is some kind of list or publication out there.

Mike

 

[hammondo]

Mark, as someone who has been a tv program director, I agree 100% with your post (up to the last paragraph)

I disagree there, because my work is mine amd my heirs- period.