THE
PUBLIC'S DOMAIN - Some excellent news:
"SUPREME COURT HANDS DOWN NEW COPYRIGHT DECISION
- The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that a company
that uses material in the public domain cannot be sued under
trademark law for failing to give credit to the originator of the
material. The ruling came in the case of a video company, which had
extracted footage from 20th Century Fox's World War II documentary
series Crusade in Europe, added some new material, and then
released it under the name Campaigns in Europe. In effect, the court
held that once the copyright on a work has expired and it enters the
public domain, it can not be retrieved again by invoking the
trademark law." (STUDIO BRIEFING)
Speaking of PD (which we were),
something brewing over at the Movie Section thanks to HHU
member and all around good guy, Mr. Lobo...what exactly?
Well, it's hard to tell right now, but it is gelling.
Check out the
hub-bubba here!
PUBLIC DOMAIN FILMS
ROYALTY FREE FOR HORROR HOSTS!
by Mr. Lobo
Many cult films have
fallen into the Public Domain or are Royalty Free. Because Mr.
Lobo has a tight show budget, these are the films we feature
for the most part on my program Cinema Insomnia.
In many cases the
producers have allowed the reproduction rights or copyrights to
expire or never secured them in the first place.
Because of the cheap accessibility
to art house managers, video distributors, and
TV programmers, many of these Public domain films have
developed a strong following and some have become legendary
classics--even though they have made their creators relatively
little in the way of cash.
Examples: “Plan
Nine From Outer Space” and “Its A Wonderful Life”.
Repition by thrifty content seekers have unknowingly enriched
our cultural soup. “It’s a Wonderful Life” has had
it’s PD status revoked because of a loophole--it contains
copywrited music. Now it is run by one network each year
instead of a multitude...of course there was no greed involved
in this effort to steal this film from us, the American
Public. They were merely trying to save the film from over saturation. Right?
Legends are stories
that have passed through the generations from family to family
person to person storyteller to audience and belong to no one
person.
Where are the
legends, the “Plan Nines” and “Wonderful Life's”, of Tomorrow?
There may not be
any.
White knuckled
corporations, who, of course, are merely protecting the livelihoods
of their artists, are tightly restricting the
public presentation of their films. They are limiting the
cultural and artistic impact of their work in hopes for the
big moolah jackpot--that usually never comes. Many films have
disappeared into utter obscurity because of this
protection.
In many cultures the
Government, Patrons and Social Groups Subsidize the Arts. The
artists live well and are compensated for their work and the
fruits of their labor belong to the people.
Our culture is driven
by Capitalism, so it would be nearly impossible to reverse our
system as it stands now. We should, however, protect our
Public Domain films from corporations who try to revoke what
has been given to us.
Unfortunately, even
with the law on your side a big monolith like Disney or Sony
could litigate a careful Horror Host into the stone age.
That all said, this
is a partial list of cult, sci-fi, and horror films believed
to be (by Mr. Lobo) in the public domain to get you
started...Enjoy at your own risk!
PD Question For Mr. Lobo
© The Horror Host Underground
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