My friend Dan and I frequently gripe about the entertainment industry’s failure to adapt to new technology. In particular, the music business, which had grown accustomed to gouging us with exorbitant CD prices, failed to adapt to the Internet age and suddenly found its music being shared online — gasp — FOR FREE!
Instead of finding a way to use the Internet to everyone’s advantage, the Recording Industry Association of America (also known as the RIAA or, simply, “evil”) decided on a better solution: Threaten to sue every 15-year-old boy who’s ever downloaded a Green Day song and shared it with his buds.
That’ll make us feel better about high prices and crappy new artists!
Now that Junior is scared straight, TV is taking a similar approach, with Viacom and other organizations threatening to sue YouTube for posting copyrighted material. One of the great things about YouTube is that you can go there to see practically every music video ever shown on MTV and VH1. Trust me, you won’t see Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” on either of those channels today. But Viacom, which owns most MTV and VH1 content, doesn’t want you to see it anywhere else. So it has threatened to sue YouTube for $1 billion.
Sorry, Bonnie — we know you’d like the exposure after all these years. But it’s just (bad) business.
Fortunately, some in the entertainment industry — including a Los Osos celebrity — get it.
This week we learned that more than 200 episodes of “The Gumby Show” will be posted online at sites like YouTube, Google, and AOL/In2TV. The pilot, Gumby on the Moon, is already available for viewing.
Gumby is, of course, the little green — unless you can think of something else to call him — clay dude who embarks on a variety of adventures. He’s artsy, silly and more than a bit trippy. Gumby creator Art Clokey lives in Los Osos, as does his son Joe, who has taken over Gumby’s business ventures. Both have made it their mission to keep Gumby in the limelight, and this is yet another step in that direction.
This week, DMGI, a digital distributor of independently owned music, TV and video catalogs, announced that it was posting Gumby (which it licensed from Classic Media and Premavision) online. Joe Clokey helped prepare the episodes by remastering them.
The timing was no coincidence. Friday was the 50th anniversary of “The Gumby Show” premiere.
If you still want to see Gumby on your TV, “The Essential Gumby” DVD collection comes out in the fall.
In the meantime, check out Bonnie Tyler while you still can.
-- Pat P.
Monday, March 19, 2007
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1 comment:
It is hard to understand your pro-free-distribution position, considering your place as a content producer. The argument is that it is inevitable. However, the livelihood of many depends on their creative abilities, and that livelihood is closely tied to licensing the content they create in exchange for monetary compensation.
As you mentioned, the Gumby crew took proper steps to license the content prior to distributing. This is the right order of things. Record labels, who own the rights to music videos--not MTV, VH1, etc.--can post them as they so choose to promote the artists and the music, with the Web being an ideal place for this type of promotion from a marketing standpoint.
However, content recorded from playback on a network is expressly prohibited from distribution. Just watch the opening credits of any movie, sports broadcast or pay-per-view event; those who produce the content have the right to control its distribution, and any compensation that comes from it.
As a marketer, I am a champion of user-generated content, insomuch as it doesn't infringe on existing copyrights. As a writer, I respect and depend on copyrights to ensure my livelihood.
It's a wonder to me how so many writers and journalists can stand as champions of free sharing when it comes to music or video, when their own work could someday be viewed as public domain--sans compensation--if the law were to allow it.
I understand that your current article is locally focused to shine on the Cloakey's dedication to keep Gumby at the forefront (and kudos to them for going after it! Truly a smart set, and quite pleasant if you've ever met them). Your title and opening paragraphs, on the other hand, address a wholly different topic. One I might suggest reading up on before you tackle again, as there is much more to it than your brush over the topics seems to imply.
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