UK Film Council axed by the UK coalition government
"The UK Film Council became one of the highest profile quangos to be axed by the coalition government after culture secretary Jeremy Hunt unexpectedly announced its abolition.
In a raft of mergings, streamlinings and closures, Hunt also axed the Museums, Libraries and Archives council (MLA). ...
Film producer Tim Bevan, who chairs the council, said: 'Abolishing the most successful film support organisation the UK has ever had is a bad decision, imposed without any consultation or evaluation. People will rightly look back on today's announcement and say it was a big mistake, driven by short-term thinking and political expediency. British film, which is one of the UK's more successful growth industries, deserves better.'
Since it was created by Labour in 2000 the UKFC, with 75 staff, has been responsible for handing out more than £160m of lottery money to over 900 films. Successes range from Bend it Like Beckham to Gosford Park to Fish Tank with the occasional dud - notably Sex Lives of the Potato Men - along the way. Last August the Labour government began consultation on merging the film council with the BFI."
(Mark Brown and Maev Kennedy, 26 July 2010, Guardian News and Media Limited)
Fig.1 'Centurion' is a Pathé Productions presentation in association with the UK Film Council of a Celador Films Production of A Film by Neil Marshall.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Acquiring new media works
"Museologists face a new reality in our fast-changing high-tech world. Works with technological components pose unfamiliar challenges and require acquisition procedures that differ from traditional practices. Primarily, this means giving careful consideration to the notions of copyright (intellectual property), conservation and artist collaboration prior to the purchase of media-based art.
The Survey of New Media Cataloguing Practices report, produced by the DOCAM Cataloguing Structure Committee, indicates that few museum institutions have established a specific policy for acquiring new media works. Yet a policy of this sort is an important tool: used to assess the characteristics and short-, medium- and long-term conservation and exhibition needs of such works, it can help museums make informed choices when envisaging additions to their collections."
(DOCAM)
CONTRIBUTOR
David RogersonSHARE
Reading ban on leaked Harry Potter
"Fourteen fans bought Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from The Real Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam on the west coast of Canada before managers realised their mistake [selling books that were under embargo]. But readers will be unable to share their knowledge after Raincoast Books, the book’s Canadian publisher, was granted a 'John Doe' injunction prohibiting the buyers from even reading their copies before the publication date.
The supreme court of British Columbia issued a court order preventing anyone from 'displaying, reading, offering for sale, selling or exhibiting in public' their books. J. K. Rowling’s legal advisers said that the author was entitled to prevent buyers from reading their own books even though they had not broken the law.
'The fact is that this is property that should not have been in their possession,' said Neil Blair, a legal specialist for Christopher Little, the author’s literary agent. 'Copyright holders are entitled to protect their work. If the content of the book is confidential until July 16, which it is, why shouldn’t someone who has the physical book be prevented from reading it and thereby obtaining the confidential information? How they came to have access to the book is immaterial'."
(The Times Online)
CONTRIBUTOR
David RogersonSHARE
Did You Say “Intellectual Property”? It's a Seductive Mirage
"It has become fashionable to toss copyright, patents, and trademarks—three separate and different entities involving three separate and different sets of laws—into one pot and call it 'intellectual property'. The distorting and confusing term did not arise by accident. Companies that gain from the confusion promoted it. The clearest way out of the confusion is to reject the term entirely."
(Richard M. Stallman)
CONTRIBUTOR
David RogersonSHARE
CONTRIBUTOR
David RogersonSHARE
