Posted on Tuesday, October 25, 2005 12:03 PM
Rosa Parks died today, 92 years old. She was a famous civil rights activist in the US. Some say her ´no´- her refusal to give her seat in the bus to a white person in 1955 - changed the country. Her arrest led to a 351 days public transportation strike organised by Rev. M. L. King. Historical footage of Rosa Park´s activism can be found in a great documentary on the history of the civil rights movement in the US. But this documentary, "Eyes on the Prize", has been blocked from television rebroadcast and DVD release by a thicket of copyright on the hundreds of photos, music tracks and video clips used in its making.
During this year´s Black Conscious Month, screenings of the documentary were organised all over the US. In many cases, the organisers were violating copyright laws (Watch the trailer here).
Why were they violating copyright laws? Eyes on the Prize has been unavailable for showing or sale since 1995 because of copyrights restrictions:
"For example, the film includes footage of a group of people singing "Happy Birthday" to Martin Luther King. Incredibly, "Happy Birthday" is under copyright and some rights holders believe that they should be given licensing fees if the song appears in any film, even a documentary. Yes that's correct, "Happy Birthday" is restricted under copyright --so if you've ever sung it in a restaurant or a park, you could literally be breaking the law."
(''Happy Birthday,'' as it turns out, was copyrighted in 1935 and, following the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act of 1998, will remain so until at least 2030. Filmmakers have been known to pay $15,000 to $20,000 for just one verse, according to a recent report on documentary clearances issued by the Center for Social Media.")
"But "Happy Birthday" is just the beginning. Eyes on the Prize is made up of news footage, photographs, songs and lyrics from the Civil Rights Movement that are tangled up in a web of licensing restrictions. Many of these licenses had expired by 1995 and the film's production company, Blackside, could not afford the exorbitant costs of renewing them. "Eyes on the Prize" has been unavailable to the public ever since." (from Downhillbattle website).
It seems that the Ford Foundation and some philantropists are putting up the money to pay for the licenses. Is this the solution? Money and charity decide whose history remains visible and whose history disappears?