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  #16  
Old 07-16-2008, 09:39 PM
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Dave A Dave A is offline
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Regretably, NBC News is correct. In this case, they may not be the copyright holder anyway and can do nothing. They are bound to protect copyrights regardless of useage...private or scholarly. And they have layers of lawyers. Scholarly does get a bit of an edge though for restoration and research. And excerpted useage for a price is possible but severely limited. Mere seconds of footage just like excerpting printed copyright material for a review.

Copyrights are like patents and we all know what Sarnoff did with that concept. And add on the ongoing rights to performers, composers, union personel, etc. And somewhere upstream, someone actually owns the program. Way more than NBC wants to sort out.

In this case, it was a WRC News program and they would be the initial copyright holder. If the program went to the full NBC network, add another layer of copyright. But the tape came from the Eisenhower Library. You tell me who owns it. Expiration of the copyright would be in question but a long battle.

A great example is the Napster dustup a few years back. Now Napster is a venue to purchase copyrighted material. And don't forget the troubles Youtube has. The movie "It's A Wonderful Life" seemed to fall in to public domain for a few years and could be found on every station for weeks at a time near Christmas. Oops, the music was still copyrighted and that ended that.

Have you ever noticed that photographers keep complete control of their work product? Maybe they were ahead of their time.

But sometime, somewhere, these tapes will be available to be viewed in the name of scholarship and restoration. The ETV convention is a good place to pull up a chair and view because some of the scholars do attend and can show the work product...for viewing only. I saw the most spectacular Ernie Ford Show in it's restored color production there.

Dave A
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Last edited by Dave A; 07-16-2008 at 09:51 PM. Reason: minor text changes
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  #17  
Old 07-17-2008, 11:22 AM
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I think it's slightly less complicated than this. NBC definitely owns whatever copyright may still exist in the material; WRC was an owned-and-operated NBC station and the O&O stations' material is owned by the network. The Eisenhower Library is a repository only, and has no rights interest at all, just because they have a copy (any more than they would have some rights interest if they have a copy of "Citizen Kane" in their collection.) NBC News most likely employs this policy because they don't have the resources to deal with private individuals seeking material--think of all the people who've ever been on television, or think they were, in the days before VCRs. This blanket policy keeps them from having to deal with these requests on which they will make no money whatsoever. The other factor is releasing material to people who have no vested interest in keeping it from being copied. Producers sign contracts limiting the use of the footage and can be sued if they misuse it; individuals would in theory be able to sign similar agreements but in practice going after them for damages should this material end up on the internet, or in other people's hands, is going to be more trouble for NBC than it's worth. It's unfortunate but it does make sense. At the moment I think the best hope for this sort of stuff may lie in institutions like UCLA being able to make the footage remotely available as a secure stream on the web--but that's a long way off.

Of course the big question--which is irrelevant if NBC won't provide the material anyway--is whether there is still any copyright at all. If indeed it was actually copyrighted in the first place (not too likely), it fell into the public domain in 1986 if it wasn't renewed (extremely unlikely.)
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  #18  
Old 07-17-2008, 11:30 PM
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What I usually tell people is that basically copyrights are eternal. No copyright has really expired in the U.S. in the last 20 years. Every time something comes close, they just extend the time.

Anyway, the entire video is not available for broadcast and they will not copy the entire video. They will make copies of 30 sec intervals for research and documentary use. Cost depends on use, and how many people will see it and how many times it will be distributed. Home video rights are a separate license (how annoying). I've been told the clip of Eisenhower pushing the button to go from B&W to Color is cheaper. Anything else would require the digital master to be pulled and a duplication of the piece (you pay for that as well).

Well, sorry, dead end. But it was interesting to try

David
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  #19  
Old 07-24-2008, 10:03 PM
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UCLA to screen Eisenhower Color Tape Friday July 25

UCLA will screen the restoration of the earliest surviving color video tape (from May 22, 1958) . It will be shown on Friday July 25, 2008 at 730 PM in its Wilder Theater in the Hammer Museum on Wilshire Blvd in Westwood (Los Angeles). Don Kent did the playback using Ed Reitan's modifications of the Ampex AVR-1 to play this earliest color tape format.

Billy Wilder Theater
Courtyard Level, Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90024

FOUR PRESIDENTS ON TELEVISION

Dedication Day: NBC Washington Studios Dedication Ceremony
5/22/58. 30 min
DIR: Frank Slingland. WITH: Stuart Finley, David Brinkley, Ray Scherer.

Preserved from the oldest color videotapes known to have survived, this historic program documents the dedication ceremonies of WRC-TV, NBC's new studios in Washington, DC, the nation's first installation designed and built from the ground up for color television broadcasting. At the ceremonies President Dwight D. Eisenhower serves as chief speaker, his appearance marking the first color telecast of a president to originate from the nation's capitol. With the push of a button from NBC executive Robert Sarnoff, the black-and-white image miraculously turns into color.

The program will also present:

NBC News Special Report: "Nixon-Khrushchev Debate"
7/25/59. 20 min

At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow on July 24, 1959, Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev held an impromptu debate while standing before an exhibit of American color television equipment. Their lively exchange was recorded on color videotape and flown to the U.S. where it was aired on all three American networks the following day. The Archive presents this historic encounter as presented by NBC

See http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/screenings/screenings.html
under Preservationist's Choice.


Ed Reitan
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  #20  
Old 07-25-2008, 12:17 AM
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G'day Ed. Thanks for letting us know about about the screenings. Pity for myself I live in Australia, I would of otherwise been able to somehow make the event and of course the 2007 Early TV convention to see those restored 1954 colour kinescope recordings you presented, but it's really good at least it's getting shown to the public for their enjoyment and hopefully sometime in the distant future when I get the money to do a USA trip, I'll have an opportunity to see it myself in a future screening.
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  #21  
Old 02-20-2012, 12:28 PM
RobArist RobArist is offline
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More on Eisenhower 1958 dedication WRC-TV colour videotape

Hi,

Sorry I was not able to provide you with a copy of the NBC Special, but we have posted on the Archives website the moment the broadcast goes from black and white to color.

I hope you enjoy it.
http://www.nbcuniversalarchives.com/...-02-28-2011.do

Best,
Luis
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  #22  
Old 02-20-2012, 12:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RobArist View Post
Hi,

Sorry I was not able to provide you with a copy of the NBC Special, but we have posted on the Archives website the moment the broadcast goes from black and white to color.

I hope you enjoy it.
http://www.nbcuniversalarchives.com/...-02-28-2011.do

Best,
Luis
Luis--

Nice job with the aspect ratio. Was your staff not aware that the television image was 4:3 in 1958, or did they just think that poor Robert Sarnoff was particularly short and stocky (and the Presidential seal is elliptical)?

Jeff Martin
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  #23  
Old 02-20-2012, 04:05 PM
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Penthode Penthode is offline
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I do not remember President Eisenhower being so fat.

It is a shame that even NBC cannot seem to get the aspect ratio correct.
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  #24  
Old 10-05-2012, 09:42 PM
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Ted Langdell Ted Langdell is offline
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Oldest Color Videotape--How to get a copy

Perhaps you have to be interested in selling it? Ask how to license it for sale.

Copies are being sold here:
http://www.dvdsentertainmentonline.c...first-color-tv

I have no idea whether this is a licensed vendor or not. Buyer beware.

It is on YouTube and several other video hosting sites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKqHZcXvUAs

I can tell you that the restoration to D-2 looks quite good on a broadcast monitor.

The story is here:
http://www.quadvideotapegroup.com/Ei...estoration.htm
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