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

[Noah silva <nsilva(at)atari-source.com>]

Ok,

but is that such a grossly bad thing?

Yes, on the one hand, I want accuracy above all else.

But as you said, climates were different.  I remember seeing a
very old black and white maxwellhouse coffee commercial depicting the
woman making coffee for her husband.  It ended with a narrative saying
something like "now be a good little wife and get your husband the coffee
before he hets home.. or else".  I don't know if it was serious or
sarcastic... or how it was meant at that time, but I am very sure they
wouldn't like that on public release now.  If they were showing old
commercials they would probably omit that one or edit out that last
portion.  

I am not saying we should forget everything, but the past is also the past
and I can't immagine any company (or any other type of
organization) wanting to remind everyone of something it participated in
that is now out of public favor.  Organizations spend lots of money on
advertizing, etc. to show themselves in a POSITIVE light.

 -- noah silva

On Mon, 22 Oct 2001, Kroll, Dave wrote:

> 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.
>