I'm stuck in the Snake Pit of rights issues & feel like I'm going CRAZY!
OK, I like to think I am a somewhat informed citizen of the world, but I feel like I'm drowning in a world of unnecessarily complicated rights issues. One huge beef I have as someone living north of 49 who just digs old movies is how difficult it is to see some films. Without having to hire a 1-800 lawyer, I'd like to know why this is. Suggestions welcome!
Problem #1: HDTV without the HD or, Canadians Can Go Screw Themselves.
I'm a cheap bastard but we caved. We got a lovely Sony flatscreen with HDTV. OK, I theorized, now I could see the glistening globs of brylcreem in George Raft's hair, what's not to like. But, wait.
TCM is obviously my channel of choice (though props to CHCH and TVO for filling the gaps with even more well chosen and uncut classics). Yet I quickly noticed that while I do receive TCM in HD, I often get this on my screen: Blackout in Effect. Sure, the movie is on in non-HD, but if you switch to the HD channel - bupkis. WHAT! I am paying for HDTV and not even getting it? I'm not the only one who's noticed this. There's a few online discussions but none of them have been able to clearly explain who I should get angry with. http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=117585 Should I be shaking my fist at my HD provider, or with TCM? Is this not a sad world where we can't even figure out who we need to complain to? At this point, I don't even understand if I should slowly tear up my Robert Osborne Fan Club card or be writing the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). What is Radio-television, by the way? It's 2010, man, do you think maybe Canada needs someone to help sort out digital issues rather than figure out which way to dial the AM/FM knob?
Problem #2: I Want to Buy Your Product, But You Won't Let Me.
Over the summer I read a great article about services where film archives will create DVD-Rs on-demand-- they'll make you one off pressings of out-of-print films. WOW! You can either go directly to the company's site (as in Warner's shop: http://www.wbshop.com). Amazon also makes their products available, too (admittedly, Amazon buries these offerings pretty deeply, with extra long URLs like http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=2204702011). MGM products are also available. When I tried purchasing one of these items through the Warner shop, I was denied! DENIED! Again, they played the "foreigner" card. In their response to me, they wrote:
We are very sorry, but we cannot ship DVD or Blu Ray discs outside of the US due to licensing and distribution regulations. These products are also formatted differently for different regions of the world and the version that we sell would not play on DVD systems built for your region.
We apologize, but we do not have international release information. Please contact your local retailer for this information. Again, we are sorry for the inconvenience, but we hope you will look at the many other items that we have that are able to ship internationally.
OK - I realize I do live in a separate, sovereign nation (even if we put Canadian films in the "foreign" section in rental stores... we're kind of self-loathing). What I don't really understand is the rights restrictions. What licensing and distribution regulations? (Citation?) OK, so even if there's some truth in that statement, what do they mean "the version we sell would not play on DVD systems built for you region." Really? Do I live in North Korea? Jeesh!
What I don't understand is the larger issue. Is there an unwillingness to provide these products widely without further compensation? Is it outdated copyright legislation? Is it poorly written (industry-friendly) copyright legislation? At the moment, bill C-32 is going through a second reading in the Canadian House of Commons http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5439/135. Balanced copyright advocates such as the author of that attached post (Michael Geist) do see major weaknesses in the proposed legislation, mainly because of the anti-circumvention provision that prohibits the breaking of digital locks. I think that what this means is that the legislation is attempting to take away your right to alter a product you've fairly bought. Like when my little sister recorded herself singing on top of her Dr Seuss cassette. ILLEGAL!
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