Culture

Culture

by Mike Masnick




Against Intellectual Property Laws... Only When It Works Against You

from the interesting... dept

Funny how that works. Last month, a group of folks involved in the making of an award winning documentary about the civil rights struggle were complaining how it couldn't be shown anymore because of the licensing terms on the content used in the film. There's even a quote: "It's a very important project to bring back and keep in front of the public." Others made similar quotes. So, when Downhill Battle went out and put the film online, you'd think the group would be happy. Nope. They're calling their lawyers and planning to "pursue any and all legal remedies available to stop this as soon as possible." You can see their point. They don't want to be associated with this unauthorized use of the content, which could reflect poorly on their attempts to relicense the content. However, it does seem a little bit silly for them to complain about the way documentary licensing works and then get just as upset when someone helps them get around it. If they are perfectly happy with the way the licensing system works, then why complain about it in the first place?

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