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 Video-Cellar |
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January 14, 2010 12:03:02am |
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feature_films
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Re: Are these public domain? |
The Wade Williams of copyright claiming is Wade Williams (1) on IMDB. He is was kid during the atomic era (born 1942), part of the monster kid generation, growing up on the horror and sci-fi movies of the time. He is the one who had enough money to try and buy his childhood.
He tries to enforce copyright on public domain films, he has renewed copyright based on the shakiest of legal grounding, he also does own a few films outright, and has prevented those from being properly restored if he doesn't already own the best elements.
Many have called him a hack film-maker who attaches himself to other people's films to attempt to share in their prestige. He commits the ultimate moral crime that a public domain film distributor can - he puts his name in the credits.
If you want more info on the Wade Williams issue check this out.
http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/2474
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Poster:
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guyzilla |
Date:
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January 14, 2010 03:22:47am |
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feature_films
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Re: Are these public domain? |
WOW! I just spent forever reading the thread from that link and only read part of it. But it does illustrate the reason why I would avoid uploading anything claimed by Williams, even if those claims were invalid. The last thing I would want is to go to the time and trouble of uploading a movie just to have it removed by IA shortly afterward (of course that probably wouldn't happen too quickly now with the Archive's current situation). The Archive likely wouldn't be able to afford to deal with any legal action because right now it doesn't even look like it could afford to have any real staff to speak of. I remember downloading quite a few Ed Wood films here sometime back, none of which are here now. But I do thank the brassy individuals who recently put PLAN 9 back up.
This post was modified by guyzilla on 2010-01-14 11:22:47
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Poster:
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skybandit |
Date:
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January 14, 2010 08:45:22am |
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feature_films
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Re: Are these public domain? |
The link you posted suggests that "Kronos" and "The Hideous Sun Demon" are claimed by WW, but not owned. If this is true, I have copies of both.
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Poster:
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guyzilla |
Date:
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January 14, 2010 04:48:34pm |
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Forum:
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feature_films
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Subject:
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Re: Are these public domain? |
Now if "Kronos" was PD then that would be mindblowing. I would have thought that one was copyright with or without Wade Williams.
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Poster:
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billbarstad |
Date:
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January 14, 2010 07:26:16pm |
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feature_films
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Re: Are these public domain? |
Sounds like you're describing a small (or smaller) -minded Raymond Rohauer.
This post was modified by billbarstad on 2010-01-15 03:26:16
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Poster:
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guyzilla |
Date:
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January 14, 2010 10:15:30pm |
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Forum:
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feature_films
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Subject:
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Re: Are these public domain? |
Who's that? Really, I don't know.
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Poster:
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Video-Cellar |
Date:
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January 14, 2010 10:22:43pm |
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feature_films
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Subject:
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Re: Are these public domain? |
Raymond Rohauer was a film exhibitor and collector who died in 1987. He distributed Buster Keaton's movies for a while and collected lots of rare silent and early sound films. Sometimes he renewed the copyrights on these films through dubious means ("She" for example). He was well know for pursuing people through the courts for violating the copyright in movies like "Birth of a Nation" long after they had lapsed.
If you know who people like William K Everson (lost films hunter) and David Shepard (Blackhawk Films) are, Rohauer is the antithesis of them. They collected, preserved and made films widely available to the public. Rohauer seems to have been equal parts "look what I've got" and "look what you don't have". If he was in an early western movie, he'd be wearing a black hat.
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Poster:
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Video-Cellar |
Date:
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January 14, 2010 10:10:26pm |
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feature_films
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Re: Are these public domain? |
I've heard that said before. But I don't know that Williams is quite as bad as Rohauer was.
There are apparently a number of silent films Rohauer had the final extant copy of that he allowed to disintegrate in their cans because the studios would not give him copyright. But he take over US copyrights to many films and pursued people in the courts for violating the copyright in PD movies.
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Poster:
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billbarstad |
Date:
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January 15, 2010 05:28:57am |
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feature_films
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Re: Are these public domain? |
That does make him worse. I didn't know he let films just disappear. I certainly don't like it that his name is in the titles of some of my silent movies that he 'restored'.
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Poster:
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billbarstad |
Date:
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January 15, 2010 09:56:38am |
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feature_films
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Subject:
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Re: Are these public domain? |
and/or copyrighted.
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Poster:
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PublicDomainForever |
Date:
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January 15, 2010 11:08:33am |
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feature_films
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Subject:
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Re: Are these public domain? |
Sad that there are so many unscrupulous people in the world when it comes to rare films. Folks like that give humanity a bad name.
So, is the old version of SHE Public Domain? I know that Ray Harryhausen oversaw a colorization of it by Legend Films a couple of years ago, and it looks great. Ray is a god among mortals, not to mention a stop frame genius!!
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Poster:
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billbarstad |
Date:
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January 16, 2010 05:06:13am |
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Forum:
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feature_films
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Re: Are these public domain? |
Wade Williams and Raymond Rohauer have behaved badly and definitely haven't been a friend of the public's rights, but their acts are insignificant compared to those of the studios and Congress. How many movies were lost forever when studios destroyed prints to recover silver in film stock or by improper storage? Congress added the right to a lengthy copyright renewal, and has since made renewal automatic. More recently, Congress created the DMCA to protect the movie industry's business model from what it sees as piracy and extinguishing the public's right to fair use. It's forcing smaller countries to create their own DMCA-style protections using trade agreements like CAFTA. Then there's the President, whose representatives are in secret negotiations with our large trading partners for new copyright protections in the ACTA treaty.
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