Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
Helen, it really all goes back to Hollyweird. They aren't going to let any movie they have go into the public domain. And they don't care how much collateral damage there is. The music industry is just as bad. It's just that it's far easier to have a copy of music to convert to digital. But how many obscure jazz master tapes from the 1940's and 1950's have been allowed to disintegrate - all in the name of long copyright for a few famous acts...
(But they didn't matter. We took care of the important ones (e.g. the ones lots of people will pay for...)
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Bizarrely a friend of mine in her 90's was trying to get someone interested in her husbands Jazz collection. Not master tapes by any means, but some were rare, and she would have given them to a good home. Her husband was a Jazz musician himself and had about 40 boxes of LPs. I think they were probably thrown out.
Money is how we value things I am afraid, and often if it is free no-one values it. I am sure the obscure tapes are of value to someone, but to who and how much. DO we say that everything must be saved? If so it is simple, (haha nothing is ever simple, but for the sake of argument) pass a law that every work that can possibly be considered art must be preserved in perpetuity by the rights holder. Eventually they will run out of room for non digital items and start relinquishing those rights. I am being a tad facetious here, but answering your belief that all art good or bad, popular or obscure should be preserved. Even before copyright books and other art were lost. Nothing to do with rights. ANd we often only know they were lost when they are found.
Those that think that copyright will destroy any current works that are digitised are seeing reality than I am. Possibly they are right, but many old BBC films were destroyed (Tapes written over) and have surfaced from home recordings and illicit copies made by employees and others. Some I believe were even purchased by BBC and sold on DVD, although I have no actual proof of that. Could be a rumour.
Ebooks and scanned books, taped, ripped and bootlegged music , even old computer games are not likely to disappear into the ether unless there is zero interest in them. Even then they will probably linger on.
Helen