More on Eisenhower 1958 dedication WRC-TV colour videotape

[Dave A]

Regretably, NBC News is correct. In this case, they may not be the copyright holder anyway and can do nothing. They are bound to protect copyrights regardless of useage...private or scholarly. And they have layers of lawyers. Scholarly does get a bit of an edge though for restoration and research. And excerpted useage for a price is possible but severely limited. Mere seconds of footage just like excerpting printed copyright material for a review.

Copyrights are like patents and we all know what Sarnoff did with that concept. And add on the ongoing rights to performers, composers, union personel, etc. And somewhere upstream, someone actually owns the program. Way more than NBC wants to sort out.

In this case, it was a WRC News program and they would be the initial copyright holder. If the program went to the full NBC network, add another layer of copyright. But the tape came from the Eisenhower Library. You tell me who owns it. Expiration of the copyright would be in question but a long battle.

A great example is the Napster dustup a few years back. Now Napster is a venue to purchase copyrighted material. And don't forget the troubles Youtube has. The movie "It's A Wonderful Life" seemed to fall in to public domain for a few years and could be found on every station for weeks at a time near Christmas. Oops, the music was still copyrighted and that ended that.

Have you ever noticed that photographers keep complete control of their work product? Maybe they were ahead of their time.

But sometime, somewhere, these tapes will be available to be viewed in the name of scholarship and restoration. The ETV convention is a good place to pull up a chair and view because some of the scholars do attend and can show the work product...for viewing only. I saw the most spectacular Ernie Ford Show in it's restored color production there.

Dave A