Apparently it is illegal to show "EOTP" legally because of copyright laws. You know how when you read a quote in a history text? That's not plagarism, right? If you cite the source? Well, it's not the same if you use video footage -- even if you cite the source. It's still illegal. So we are trying to change that so that TV footage can be used in documentaries and stuff. Otherwise, all our history from the invention of TV will simply disappear into corporate media vaults.
Tuesday night, all across the nation, people are going to be committing civil disobedience by showing "Eyes on the Prize". My boss, a former civil rights worker in Selma, Alabama, is going to show the DVD too. Here's the press release:
Berkeley Joins in National Protest:
Famous PBS Documentary on Civil Rights
Barred by Copyright Holders
Tuesday, February 8, 2005
An act of civil disobedience will be committed by Tom Hunt, Berkeley activist, in defiance of unjust copyright laws. Mr. Hunt will download and show the highly regarded documentary "Eyes on the Prize" to a group that will include many civil rights workers, who have issued a statement that:
" . . . in the spirit of the Southern Freedom Movement, we who once defied the laws and customs that denied people of color their human rights and dignity, we whose faces are seen in "Eyes on the Prize," we who helped produce it, will on February 8, 2005, defy the media giants who have buried our story in their vaults by publicly sharing episodes of this forbidden knowledge with all who wish to see it."
This act of defiance will be coordinated with groups all around this country who will have similar showings on the same date.
