I have mixed feeling about copyright. The lapse of copyright on jazz recordings released over fifty years ago in Europe has meant much obscure material has resurfaced that the multinationals have no interest in continuing to make available to a small niche audience. But at the cost of the work of some companies who do it well being ripped by firms who do it badly.
It is saddening though to discover the company which made the film Downfall (2004), on the last days of Hitler in his Berlin bunker, are pressurising YouTube to remove the endless parodies of the scene where the Fuhrer realises only ghost divisions are defending Berlin. An excellent piece of publicity, which must have led to many people who do not follow the contemporary cinema too closely buying the DVD. OK, that group includes the present writer. We are back to the control of intellectual property rights.
