Page 37 even raises the Smithsonian issue that forms the basis of the thread: "The Smithsonian Institution and its for-profit division, Smithsonian Business Ventures, made news because of their deal to distribute the Smithsonian film collection through Showtime, a commercial film distribution company, a subsidiary of the CBS Corporation. Due to the exclusive nature of that deal and the fee based distribution model agreed to by Smithsonian, a public, non-profit museum, the public, politicians, film makers and cultural heritage professionals cried foul." The entry is dated, however, as it suggests the deal was never concluded. What is interesting is that the Smithsonian had to appear before a House Subcommittee to account for the deal, proving that there was political oversight exercised on that particular deal.
The comparison fails because most films are still under copyright in the US. If Disney has their way, copyright will never expire again.
Instead consider Renascence age paintings where there is no copyright because of age, or the works of Beethoven, or the Declaration of Independence. The LEM has no copyright or other IP protection attached.
They would have to file some sort of civil suit I'd imagine.
That is what others have done in the past but all of the examples I found involved live broadcasts or reporting, like if someone broadcast a sports game live from an adjacent building so there was no issue with trespass or any sort of formal agreement.
Or “crony capitalism”.
Just to be clear, no matter what they said in response, this is Showtime going after minor content producers or "citizen journalist" exactly like Fran.
Tom Hayden, general manager of Smithsonian Networks, said the partners did not intend the relationship to be exclusionary; rather, he said, they are trying to provide filmmakers with an attractive platform on which to display their work.How it excluding them not exclusionary? How does this help filmmakers other than those who work for Showtime?
Tom Hayden is a big fat liar. The Smithsonian should be ashamed. I expected no better of Showtime but they can die in a fire also.
It disgusts me the extent to which American politicians have forgotten that their job is to serve the public, not special interests.
There was almost never such a time when that was not the case.