[fc-uk-discuss] Creative Archive download statistics

[rob at robmyers.org]

Quoting Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>:

> It is also interesting that the majority of BFI material is so old 
> that it is likely to be public domain -- in which case I doubt the 
> Creative Archive license is enforceable (and if it is it means one 
> would actually be restricting access unnecessarily).

I was concerned for a while when the CA license was first launched that 
the only
use of it was the BFI claiming copyright over their old films. But they might
have copyright on the files, depending on how this sort of thing works in the
UK, even though some of the footage definitely looks more than 50 years old.
I'm not a lawyer, this is pure speculation, there is no Bridgeman vs. Corel in
the UK.

If digitising counts as translation from image to text then they may have
created a new copyrighted text by scanning the film.

If applying a codec to convert the raw scan into a compressed format creates a
derivative work, they may have copyright on that.

And if they have retouched or processed the scans to restore the film, 
they may
well have copyright on that.

- Rob.