As you may remember from our earlier post on the subject, Eyes on the Prize has been in the news quite a bit lately, because of the copyright problems that are preventing its re-release. Here's the link to Wired News' latest story on the subject. "Downhill Battle", the protest group that was providing links for downloading the film backed off of promoting downloading (they removed the links following a request by the filmmaker's family), but continues to encourage groups to hold screenings of legitmately available copies.
This movement raises interesting issues of rights protection -- as the Downhill Battle website (and the support statement of a group of civil rights veterans) emphasizes, an increasingly restrictive copyright law system is keeping one of the best sources on the Civil Rights Movement out of public circulation. The images of the everyday people who participated, those captured in much of the archive footage, are controlled not by people in them, those who made the history, but by the companies that captured the images, or, sometimes, the corporations that have acquired those companies -- who then make lots of money selling "licenses" to use the content. At the same time, this incredible series is the result of the hard work and creativity of individuals who would like to see their rights protected, too, something this movement seems to overlook.
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