Eyes on the Prize is the brilliant, seminal documentary on the civil rights movement that is no longer available for educators and public viewing because no one can figure out how to clear the copyrights to all the archival footage in it. Downhill Battle tried to rectify this by distributing copies of the series by BitTorrent with the idea that people who cared about the civil rights fight would stage viewings at home on Feb 8, in honor of Black History month. They were shut down under legal threats, as was at least one of the showings.
The Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement issued a public statement of support for Downhill Battle and its "Eyes on the Screen" campaign, saying in effect that they, as the "stars" of the footage in the documentary, took the incredible risks that they did in order to be remembered, not erased from history by Draconian copyright.
Now, Downhill Battle is soliciting signatures in support of the Bay Area Vets of the Civil Rights Movement: I've just signed on, and I hope you will, too.
We strongly defend the original purpose of copyright which was to protect creators, — artists, composers, performers, photographers, writers, and others, — from commercial theft of their work, and to ensure that creators could make a living from their craft. But today media conglomerates have imprisoned the copyrights that once belonged to the creators, seizing the income that rightfully belongs to those who did the work, denying access to those who cannot afford to pay their exorbitant fees, and sequestering information that runs counter to their corporate political agendas.
Information, — and particularly history, — is as much a necessity of intellectual and economic life as food is of biologic life. Not only is it morally wrong to deny people the necessities of life, it's impractical because when people cannot afford to buy food they steal it. As citizens we know that without full access by all to multiple sources of news and information, democracy itself becomes a myth. And as Toni Morrison told us in 1986, "Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations."
