[Videolib] Civil Disobedience (was Eyes on the Prize)

LeeAnne Krause (LLKRAUSE@gwm.sc.edu)
Fri, 28 Jan 2005 09:33:58 -0500

I am of two equally strong minds on this question. The film librarian
in me DOES recognize this series as superspecial. As a documentary
production it is well formed and well directed. It addresses extremely
important subjects and still looks great even though it was made years
ago. It is clear and comprehensive and is very heavily circulated in
our collection. It is a crying shame that it's no longer in print.
Half of me is hoping that acts of civil disobedience will shake up the
system and help things get going on rights clearace. Maybe, just maybe
if folks think they're gonna get ripped off then they'll start talking
turkey about getting it back on the market legally.

On the other hand, copyright laws aren't in place to hurt people or to
be a censor. My husband makes a living doing political science
research. He's getting his work published all the time in high end
journals. What if someone suddenly decided to rip off his work without
aknowledging him or gaining his permission? To whom do we turn for
recourse? The law. I have hundreds of wonderful documentaries in our
films collection here at USC, and many of them are just as important for
THEIR disciplines as Eyes is for AFrican American Studies/History.
China's Only Child is a remarkable and poignant documentary, and I'm
sorry it's out of print, but I'm not going to start broadcasting it out
of protest. Without law, there's anarchy.

I just hope this gets cleared up peacefully and soon.
LLK

LeeAnne L. Krause, Manager
Educational Films Collection
University of South Carolina
803-777-0322

See our new searchable database at www.sc.edu/library/edfilmdb/

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