Periscope films

[jcfx]

You guys may or may not have seen videos uploaded to Youtube by them,
lots of old industrial films, military, transportation.

Just saw this one on Metal forming - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEatTMQsGtg

[Steggy]

You guys may or may not have seen videos uploaded to Youtube by them,
lots of old industrial films, military, transportation.

Just saw this one on Metal forming - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEatTMQsGtg

It's another Periscope video in which they put that dumb time display smack in the middle. As they don't have the copyright on the film, I don't know what possessed them to do this.

[SteveHGraham]

The government can't own a copyright, so it's not very honest of them to mark their territory on government films.

[jcfx]

I agree, the time code ( which is what it's called ) is annoying, but the film I linked is from Shell Oil,
they probably paid for them so Periscope films is the rightful owner.
I'm not sure how Periscope Films worked out the rights for Gov't films, but it's good that at least someone is
making them available for accessible public viewing. Otherwise they would suffer the fate of numerous silent films.

On a side note "Dawson City : Frozen in time" is a interesting documentary about the
distribution chain of silent films and newsreels mixed in with some Klondike gold rush history.
It doesn't move along like a Ken Burns docu but if you can stay awake, and are a film buff, it's
worth a look. Minor spoiler, Dawson City was the end of the line for film distributors, so
they amassed a huge trove of silent films and news reels that the distributors didn't want back.

[spro]

jcfx. I agree 100%.. Thanks for the link to Periscope and the information.

[choprboy]

Periscope is 100% absolutely not the owner. Periscope takes out of copyright videos from the Library of Congress archives (and other libraries), slaps their logo over the top, and then posts to Youtube with an ad to "license" a copy of the original from them. Countless pre-1976 films, which did not file for an extension under the Copyright Act of 1976, are long out of copyright. This includes 100s of thousands of instructional films, "shorts", news clips, etc., in addition to government produced material.

Sadly, the LoC and other libraries have very little of this material available online. Wants a copy without paying Periscope? Go visit a major city/university library:
https://www.worldcat.org/title/drama-of ... lc/4534571

[John Hasler]

jcfx writes:
I'm not sure how Periscope Films worked out the rights for Gov't films...

They didn't. There are no rights to work out. Works of the US government are in the public domain.

choprboy writes:
Want a copy without paying Periscope?

Just copy it off Youtube. You will not infringe any copyright by doing so.

Or do a Web search. Much of this stuff is available elsewhere.

[spro]

More good info but jcfx turned me on to it.

[choprboy]

choprboy writes:
Want a copy without paying Periscope?

Just copy it off Youtube. You will not infringe any copyright by doing so.

Well.. that is a bit more tricky... Because Periscope has slapped their logo and timestamp over the top, the Youtube video is now a derivative work and potentially (I think arguably) could be copyrighted by Periscope. The original, unaltered video remains out of copyright. Go checkout the VHS from BYU or another library, digitize it, and upload it to Youtube unaltered.

[jcfx]

jcfx writes:
I'm not sure how Periscope Films worked out the rights for Gov't films...

They didn't. There are no rights to work out. Works of the US government are in the public domain.

I kinda suspected that Gov't media was public domain, but wasn't sure.

It's very true that there are probably other sources for similar industrial films, one of out late members Ken used to
post links to old machining and metal working books here from Archive.org, they also have films but seems harder to search
that Shell Oil film I found interesting, I now know how DOM tubes are made

[John Hasler]

choprboy writes:
Want a copy without paying Periscope?

Just copy it off Youtube. You will not infringe any copyright by doing so.

Well.. that is a bit more tricky... Because Periscope has slapped their logo and timestamp over the top, the Youtube video is now a derivative work and potentially (I think arguably) could be copyrighted by Periscope.

No way that constitutes creative expression.

[Steggy]

I agree, the time code ( which is what it's called ) is annoying, but the film I linked is from Shell Oil, they probably paid for them so Periscope films is the rightful owner.

Yes they may own the medium on which the documentary is displayed. That, however, doesn't mean they own the copyright. Unless Shell transferred the copyright to Periscope, the latter doesn't have any legal rights to the film. In fact, if Shell's copyright still exists on the original they could sue Periscope for infringement. It's no different than when you purchase software for your computer. You own the medium on which a copy of the software exists. You do not own the software.

While on the subject of copyrights, the "Steam Channel" posts a lot of video on Youtube, some of which was shot at private clubs. "Steam Channel" claims copyrights on said videos, which in the case of video shot on private property without the formal consent of the individuals seen in the videos, is spurious. In fact, a good lawyer would cite invasion of privacy, given that some of the individuals in the videos may not have known their activities were being recorded and subsequently published for profit.

No way that constitutes creative expression.

I agree and were someone to mount a legal challenge, the courts would likely agree as well.