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Why Our Media matters
Many blogs have posted about Our Media, a new site, courtesy of the Internet Archive, that provides free storage and bandwidth for your videos, audio files, photos, text and software. If you haven't checked it out yet you should, but I thought I'd post a note about why I think this site is more important that you may at first realize.
As you know, creative people often run into problems due to copyright. We casually refer to "illegal art," but the fact is that many of the problems artists encounter have little with do with the actual law. To take a recent example, Warner Brothers recently shut down screenings of Brad Neely's Wizard People, Dear Reader not by suing, but by threatening to cut off ties with the theaters that screened it.
Similarly, documentary filmmakers who use short clips or stills without licensing them can't show their work on TV or in mainstream theaters—not because the law states they have to clear all this stuff, but because the gatekeepers require it. (See my old post about the troubles documentarians have with rights clearances.)
Our Media offers something that creators who make fair use of copyrighted works have needed for a long time coming: a genuinely alternative means of distribution. Jeff Krulik's documentary Hitler's Hat has shown at festivals and won all kinds of praise, but he can't show it in mainline theaters because, like most documentary filmmakers, he couldn't afford to clear rights to the historical footage.
Now, thanks to Our Media, people like Krulik have a place where their works can be shown. Of course, this doesn't immunize them from legal threats. (Rights holders threaten to sue all the time, of course, but that doesn't mean they'd actually take the case to court, let alone win.) And when the fateful day comes and Our Media gets a DMCA takedown notice from some company claiming copyright infringement, the site will have to deal with the same issues that all internet service providers deal with. But it's a safe bet that you'd rather have the people behind Our Media hear your case--people like Lawrence Lessig and Brewster Kahle--than your typical web host. And when the Our Media folks do throw their weight behind artists facing unfair legal threats, the site could will be a serious counter to an increasingly censorius cultural environment. Internet muscle and the light of publicity saved DJ Dangermouse's Grey Album and now, with Our Media, it could save all of ours.
Posted by carrie on 03/23/2005 | Permalink
Comments
In the leadup to Ourmedia's launch I had a generally positive impression of the project. However, when the site was unveiled I was completely shocked to see that their advisory board is entirely of one race (guess which one).
Now I don't expect the blogerati to have as good social politics as, say, Stay Free but if you are going to call yourself "the global home for grassroots media" you should give some thought to the sense of "Our-ness" you are creating in how you do your institution building. I mean, any Media Criticism 101 class would touch on issues of race and inclusion in how media is constructed.
I hear a lot about "media revolution" and such from the blogosphere lately. But with an utter lack of ability to be critical about privilege surrounding race, class and gender this "revolution" will just reinforce the same oppression with respect to these issues as our current media.
Posted by: akb | Mar 23, 2005 4:10:37 PM
Please, feel free to derail any discussion at any time until racial/class/gender quotas meet your approval.
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 23, 2005 8:46:58 PM
Defensiveness isn't going to get you far, Anonymous. Why create a new media if it recreates the race/class/gender imbalances of the old media? What's the point of struggling for better media if people are excluded from self-expression because they bring different perspectives? I can watch the networks for that, thanks.
Posted by: margit | Mar 25, 2005 1:02:23 PM
