OT: Movie editing... (Was RE: [dvd-discuss] Fair use in the wild...)

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

Perhaps it's not new, but it disturbs me that we're losing the
integrity of a historical resource.  Not that I recalled or care much
what the police are holding in E.T., but it bothers me that there
may be no record of the movie _I_ saw.  It feels a bit 1984ish;
"The cops don't have shotguns.  They never had shotguns."
Whatever version you saw goes down the memory hole.

To try and bring this back towards topic:  Has the fact that they
retouched a few scenes make this a new work for purposes
of copyright?  Does reset the shot clock?  How much of a change
to a work is required to make it new?

In another vein, I was reading to my son from a Disney songbook.
It had taken what I thought were classic children's songs 
(Little bunny foo-foo, B-I-N-G-O, etc.) and Disneyfied the lyrics.  
What I thought was interesting was the copyright notice in front
said, "(c) Disney".  No year.  Is that a misprint, a mistake, or 
just arrogantly pointing out the status quo?


David Kroll

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Michael.A.Rolenz@aero.org [mailto:Michael.A.Rolenz@aero.org] 
Sent:	Thursday, October 25, 2001 5:35 PM
To:	dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
Subject:	Re: [dvd-discuss] Fair use in the wild...

DVD..... sewer?...
Sewer:Noun
1.A conduit that carries away sewage or surface water
2. Someone who sews

Either one seems applicable.

Actually, there is nothing really new about this. Hollywood routinely 
reedited movies for rerelease to fit into television or cable time slots, 
video cassettes or to just make the movie "nicer" (e.g., the original 
Frankenstein "Oh..what do we throw now" ).




"Robert S. Thau" <rst@ai.mit.edu>
Sent by: owner-dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
10/25/01 02:36 PM
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        Subject:        [dvd-discuss] Fair use in the wild...


Here's an interesting example of fair use of DVD-distributed content:

  http://www.dvdsewer.com/news/reports/et_edit.htm

It seems that the new digital enhancements in the upcoming re-release
of E.T. include replacement of some cops' guns with walkie-talkies.
The modified scene was captured from a current trailer, included on
the DVD release of "The Grinch".

rst