OT: Wartime Warner Bros. Was (RE: [dvd-discuss] Hang the RIAA in their own noose.)

["Kroll, Dave" <Dave_Kroll(at)cargilldow.com>]

FWIW, there are some legal copies, too.  Check out the DVD "Cartoon Crazy's
Go to War".
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572523824/qid=1003774185/sr=1-13/ref
=sr_1_11_13/103-6945811-9325426

And given the forum, I'll point out that it either isn't CSSed or is set for

region zero, since it plays when my Apex is set to region 1 or 2.

David Kroll

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	John Zulauf [mailto:johnzu@ia.nsc.com] 
Sent:	Thursday, October 18, 2001 5:13 PM
To:	dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
Subject:	Re: [dvd-discuss] Hang the RIAA in their own noose.



I'm very concerned that the records of this part of our history will be
held only by (and then lost by) large conglomerates, allowing them to
effectively rewrite any history they want**.  It is already happening. 
A few early Warner Bros cartoons (and wartime cartoons) have clear race
and ethnic stereotyping.  These reflect their time -- however as WB
still holds the copyright (and will long after the last reel has turned
to dust) the true history of race and entertainment is already being
lost.  Sometimes I think that the embarrasment over such egregious and
flagrant racism is a driver in the term extension craze.  Corporations
with large investments in character portfolios don't want to face the
earlier writings for these characters (and diminish their present and
future value).  They've got it all wrong though.  The shame these works
bear is a national shame, hiding them won't heal the wound.  Illegal
copies of some subset of these films (and writings about them) probably
exist.  It is the pirates that are preserving history.  This shows so
clearly that the laws are broken.

.002

**I have in my desk drawer a downloaded copy of a CNN DeCSS story which
includes a pointer to the DeCSS software. The fact that CNN is a
division of TimeWarner meant that the judgement of the premier news
network of its time was sacrificed to defending the overweaning,
litigious nature of it's parent company.  That CNN wasn't publically
shamed as "60 Minutes" was over the "tortious interferance crap" shows
that in the ephemeral world of digital media, rewriting history to fit
the needs of the powerful is easier than ever, and documentation is
fleeting (and were I to publish it) illegal.