Criterion Essay Collection

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Harold Gervais · #1 Post by **Harold Gervais** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 8:02 pm

I'm sorry if I've not noticed it before but has Criterion ever published a collection of the essays featured in their laser & DVD discs before? I'm willing to bet there would be a nice degree of interest in a Criterion branded line of film books.

Theodore R. Stockton · #2 Post by **Theodore R. Stockton** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:08 am

No, people used to ask them if they thought about publishing books of the laser disc commentaries for films they had lost the rights to and Criterion said that it would end up costing too much money to be worth it.

jedgeco · #3 Post by **jedgeco** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 10:11 am

They should sell mp3 downloads of commentaries from OOP laserdiscs on titles that they have little/no hope of ever getting the rights to. I'd pay $5/title, and there'd be minimal distribution fees. If Criterion dropped out any soundtrack from the background, I don't see a problem from a copyright standpoint. (Of course, given the litigiousness of our beloeved media conglomerates, that doesn't mean they would sue anyway....)

Andre Jurieu · #4 Post by **Andre Jurieu** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 10:42 am

jedgeco wrote:They should sell mp3 downloads of commentaries from OOP laserdiscs on titles that they have little/no hope of ever getting the rights to. I'd pay $5/title, and there'd be minimal distribution fees. If Criterion dropped out any soundtrack from the background, I don't see a problem from a copyright standpoint. (Of course, given the litigiousness of our beloeved media conglomerates, that doesn't mean they would sue anyway....)

Yeah, but what prevents one person from purchasing an mp3 commentary track and sharing it with the entire forum?

jedgeco · #5 Post by **jedgeco** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:45 am

Andre Jurieu wrote:Yeah, but what prevents one person from purchasing an mp3 commentary track and sharing it with the entire forum?

Sure, but that's a problem endemic to any distribution of audio on the internet, so I don't see that alone as a reason not to offer a service. I've made mp3s of my CC laserdisc commentaries and have shared them with people on this (well, the old) forum, so since demand is there, why not try to fulfill it?

Tribe · #6 Post by **Tribe** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 12:16 pm

Sure, but that's a problem endemic to any distribution of audio on the internet, so I don't see that alone as a reason not to offer a service.

Well, that is at least one reason why they wouldn't do it. But more important, whatever rights they may have to the particular commentary likely does not include the right to sell the commentary as an individual file. That particular right is another right that they would have to specifically negotiate for at the time that they acquire rights to the commentary.

And this discussion has been exhaustively debated here (or in previous lives of this Forum) before.

Tribe