Yes, I know, all my YouTube clips are currently disabled.
Kino International have been 'busy' again an got all of my videos on YouTube blocked, claiming copyright infringement. Copyright infringement on a film originally made in 1927 and which had its copyright expire in the US in 1955.
I thought I'd post about the actual situation with copyright of Metropolis.
Metropolis was made in 1927 by Fritz Lang (1890-1976) and originally shown in the US in the same year. Because the film was was not re-copyrighted within the applicable period (about 28 years back then), it fell into the public domain in 1955. In the past, copyright renewal did not happen automatically. Creators needed to renew copyright to retain the exclusive right to reproduce their work.
This did not happen with Metropolis (probably because it did so poorly in cinemas and wasn't deemed worth it).
That's why there are so many bad, bad copies and versions of Metropolis out there. You may now shudder if you've seen one of these :-)
Here's a general flowchart for determining copyright status:
(Click for a larger version)
Metropolis and a load of other foreign films had their copyright 'restored' in 1998. Quite how this happened, I'm not sure. How can you re-copyright a work that has already fallen into the public domain?
Apparently others wondered how you could do such a thing too. Normally the sequence of a work is:
- Creation of a work
- Copyright protection of the work
- Work falls into public domain
However the Golan v. Gonzalez case filed in 2001, challenged the re-copyrighting of public domain works. Things got complicated, as they do with legal stuff like this. Lots of lawyers probably made lots of money.
Disappointingly, this challenge was not upheld ... but was later reconsidered as Golan v. Holder. The key point of contention here was that re-copyrighting public domains works violates your First Amendment Rights.
The good news was that in 2009 Judge Babcock reversed his earlier findings, stating that "In the United States, that body of law includes the bedrock principle that works in the public domain remain in the public domain. Removing works from the public domain violated Plaintiffs’ vested First Amendment interests." (emphasis added).
Basically that means that works that are in the public domain before 1994, can't be re-copyrighted. Like, um ... let me think ... Metropolis?
Of course, I'm no lawyer myself but the whole concept of restoring the lapsed copyright of a film a bit ... dodgy.
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Apparently, things get even more complicated when a work which was not created or originally copyrighted in the US is involved. I'm still checking into things.
And what about the music? Did you clear that? It must certainly be under copyright.
Try uploading to dailymotion.com. They have tons of good clips online that have been removed from youtube.
HEY,
SEED THE FULL DVD IMAGE AS TORRENT!
BUT DO IT AS ANONYMOUS.
THE PEOPLE MAY NOT PAY YOU IN CASH, BUT WILL DO IT RECOGNIZING YOUR WORK!
Sorry to hear about this. They didn't just go after you... they went after EVERY COPY of the Moroder Version they could find on Youtube... and LEFT all the other "alternate soundtrack" versions. Yes, you read that right. Because the %^&%in' purists are all butt-hurt over the Moroder version (one even said "there is no need for the other versions now that we have the scratchy, poorly restored original footage on DVD!" and another youtube commentator "if you still have the Moroder version on VHS, I pity you.")
Re: the music: Kino left the music on Youtube. They hate the Moroder version and want to destroy all copies. That's the problem. I am sure that if it were up to him, Moroder would not have a problem with this restoration as long as it was not being done for profit.
It is 'strange' what version of Metropolis were targeted and which were not.
Still, YouTube isn't the entire world and Metropolis Redux lives on.
Where have you been, Gil? No update in over a YEAR!
Is everything okay?
Did you see KINO's version of Moroder's "Metropolis"? It seems like they stole some clips from YOUR version (like the blue backround in the Babel sequence).
Are you ever going to sell your newly updated version, as I've been anxious to see some of the changes you've told us about.
Please reply.
I sort of miss your casual updates.
Are you still alive? I followed your updates from the beginning, and it is heartbreaking to see all your work gone.
Having compared the unrestored blu-ray transfer of a print of the original Morodor version released by Kino to the Redux, there is no doubt that Redux is a better presentation of Morodor's intentions.
Sorry about misspelling the great man's name. It is, of course, "Moroder", not "Morodor" as I had mistakenly typed.
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