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Monday, May 07, 2007

YouTube and MyTube

I have mixed feelings about YouTube. On the one hand I value it as a teaching aid--there is amazing nature footage that is either completely out of print or never released in this country. On the other hand they post a lot of material that is copyrighted, usually without notifying the owner. I've just had this happen to one of my own films.
I'm fond of honoring copyrights since I'm the one who, in this case, made a film and paid a very high price for music rights that did not include new media or home video rights. Someone else posted YOUR FEETS TOO BIG on YouTube, but I'm the one who will be contacted by RCA Records for copyright violation if it stays up.
So I did what I had to to and asked YouTube to immediately take the film down.
I then contacted CartoonBrew and told them that the problem was with the soundtrack; I don't care if the animation is posted online as long as I am credited with making the film, but any online posts cannot include the track.
My new film THE OTHER EDEN has a track with rights that are free and clear, but since I am entering it in several festivals that state that it should not appear online until after the festival judging is completed, it will not be available for viewing except on DVDS for now. Certain people have received prints and they will be asked to forbear from sharing it for the time being.
I do not enjoy using bootleg 0nline prints for teaching and would rather buy nice clean copies on DVD, but until some distributors see fit to release material that is now only available in other countries, I'll still view YouTube for the duration. But you will not catch me posting anything except comments.

4 comments:

Bill Robinson said...

Hey Nancy, I wish I could have seen the film before it was removed! Ah well. Also, I posted some photos of Daumier sculptures (caricatures) on my blog. (http://billsart.blogspot.com) I took them at the Art Institute of Chicago, they are pretty cool.

Richard Gaines said...

Nancy, your work is beautiful. I just came across your blog via Cartoon Brew who had mentioned you and the animation short you did with Fats Waller as the background music. I'd like to see it.

For a second, I though that was a photograph of a school of fish. Great stuff!

Nancy said...

Hello Bill,
I adore those Daumier maquettes! The first (well second) thing I did when in Paris was to go to the Musee D'Orsay to see the originals, which are breathtaking! I will certainly go to your blog and see the ones you posted there. Thank you for doing that!
As for FEETS, there are too many copyright issues to go into here. If you want to see the film, there is a DVD/CD compilation called Fats Waller 100 for sale on amazon.com. The disc has a gree cover and a large white 100 on it so you know what you are getting. The film is mentioned in the reviews. It's the legal way to see it. No, I don't get any royalties. But that is the print that was posted on Youtube and while the color is badly transferred the film is at least complete.

Nancy said...

HI Richard,
Thank you for your nice comments. If you read my other message you can easily obtain a legal copy of YOUR FEETS TOO BIG on DVD. And you will get to listen to the wonderful music of Fats Waller, as well.
Thank you for your nice remarks. That is a nice caricature of you, too!