Sita sings the blues: ein Open-Source-Film in 35mm

12. Mai 2009

 

Nina Paley hat ihren Animationsfilm „Sita sings the blues“ ,  dessen besondere Qualität wir hier schon gewürdigt haben, in allen Fassungen frei ins Netz gestellt. Sie vertraut dabei auf die Open-Source-Kultur:

„Dear Audience,

I hereby give Sita Sings the Blues to you. Like all culture, it belongs to you already, but I am making it explicit with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License. Please distribute, copy, share, archive, and show Sita Sings the Blues. From the shared culture it came, and back into the shared culture it goes.

You don’t need my permission to copy, share, publish, archive, show, sell, broadcast, or remix Sita Sings the Blues. Conventional wisdom urges me to demand payment for every use of the film, but then how would people without money get to see it? How widely would the film be disseminated if it were limited by permission and fees? Control offers a false sense of security. The only real security I have is trusting you, trusting culture, and trusting freedom…

The old business model of coercion and extortion is failing. New models are emerging, and I’m happy to be part of that. But we’re still making this up as we go along. You are free to make money with the free content of Sita Sings the Blues, and you are free to share money with me. People have been making money in Free Software for years; it’s time for Free Culture to follow. I look forward to your innovations. (Nina Paley)

Ninja Paley hat auch ein Wiki eingerichtet, um die Verbreitung des Films  zusammen mit allen Interessierten zu verbessern und Ideen und Beiträge dafür zu sammeln, z. B. Untertitelfassungen in verschiedenen Sprachen.

Die Filmhistorikerin Kristin Thompson hat in ihrem Blog „Observations on film art and Film Art“ den Film, die besondere Ästhetik der verschiedenen technischen Trägermedien und seine ungewöhnliche Vertriebsform vorgestellt. Darin stellt Nina Paley dar, wie die besondere Wirksamkeit der Open Source-Kultur die verschiedenen Verbreitungsformen verstärkt:

„When I decided to give it away free online, what finally made me realize this was viable was when I realized that this didn’t mean it wouldn’t be seen on the big screen, that the internet is not a replacement for a theater. It’s a complement. Many people will see it online and go, “Wow, I wish I could see this on the big screen!” And so they can, and some people like to see it more than once. Another thing is, you see it online, and that increases the demand for the DVDs. So it’s the opposite of what the record and movie industries say. Actually, the more shared something is, the more demand there is for it. [applause] (Nina Paley im Interview)

Die DVD ist „almost ready“ und kann hier vorgemerkt werden.


Netflix für Blu ray

12. Februar 2008

Der größte Online-Verleih für DVD in den USA mit einem Angebot von 90.000 Titeln hat sich im Formatekrieg um das neue High Def-Format für Blu ray entschieden. Netflix teilte dies in einer Mail an seine Kunden mit (Hinweis über Amia-L):

„You’re receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.

While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.

Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don’t worry, we will contact you before this happens.

You can click here to change your format preferences.

We’re sorry for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549.

-The Netflix Team“

Golem berichtet dazu heute vormittag: „USA: Online-Videothek Netflix gibt HD-DVD auf“:

“ Noch sind es jedoch vergleichsweise wenig Kunden, die bei Netflix hochauflösende Filme auf HD-DVD oder Blu-ray ausleihen. Netflix hat bereits 400 Blu-ray-Filme im Verleihangebot.“ (Golem)

Mehr zur Konzeption und Geschichte von Netflix in Wikipedia.