After watching Eyes on the Prize earlier this week at the Civic Media Center, I felt compelled to contact my elected officials about it. I figured it’d be an appropriate time to introduce Florida Free Culture as well. The letter follows; I welcome comments. Feel free to borrow from it to use in a letter of your own: I’ve included information on contacting your legislators at the end of the letter.
Florida Free Culture held its first meeting on Thursday night. I have to admit I was nervous: I hadn’t prepared anything to say, and I didn’t know if anyone would show up. Luckily, things turned out well.
Earlier Thursday, Eldo and I tabled on Turlington Plaza for the first time. We’d bought a tri-board and sketched out a design, but didn’t have it ready by the time we were scheduled to table. So I took the board to the CSE lab, figured I’d slap something together. Well, it was so windy walking out there, I realized a tri-board would fall over anyway. Took the tri-board back, returned to CSE, printed out a paper banner, set up Eldo’s laptop to play the Creative Commons Wired CD, and chilled. Turlington was a bit dead that day, but there was a bit of interest. It was cool just to know people would be seeing our name for the first time.
Eventually the laptop’s battery died. We got the bright idea that, “Hey, if you can print a 9′ banner for $3, why not print a giant Tux?” Then we figured, “Why not put the Firefox and Creative Commons logos on there as well?” So, after crashing the XP machine a few times, and $3 later, we had a totally unwieldy, but awesome, giant piece of paper.
About a dozen people showed up to last night’s screening of Eyes on the Prize. It’s not a lot, but for the time we had to promote it, it’s not bad. I got to give a bit of background on the copyright dispute. There’s a possibility of screening more of the series in the future, if there’s interest. I can certainly vouch for their quality: these are excellent documentaries. In addition to the superb educational value, they’re very evocative, yet avoid sensationalism. It truly is a shame that copyright can lock down such powerful tools.
See you at the meeting on Thursday night!
I’m proud to report that the Civic Media Center has organized a screening of Eyes on the Prize here in Gainesville. It’s this Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. at the CMC, 1021 W. University Ave. It’s free. The episodes shown will be “The Time Has Come,” about Malcolm X and the March Against Fear, and “Two Societies,” about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the riots in Detriot. Call the CMC at (352) 373-0010 for more information.
I’ll give a brief introduction to the licensing dispute over the film before the screening. For the background, see my Feb. 9 column in the Alligator or Downhill Battle’s Eyes on the Screen Web site. This Washington Post article from Martin Luther King Day, “A Struggle for Rights”, tells the story rather well.
Widely considered the best documentary series on the Civil Rights Movement, Eyes has fallen victim to copyright licensing disputes over archival footage shown in the film. It can’t be re-released, publicly shown or broadcast. Individuals with access to the original tapes can still watch them personally, but the original VHS copies are dwindling.
Activist group Downhill Battle, with whom FreeCulture.org has worked in the past, launched their “Eyes on the Screen” project to encourage community screenings of the films as part of Black History Month. Over 100 screenings have taken place around the world, including one organized by the Free Culture group at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.
As far as I’m aware, this will be the first “Eyes on the Screen” screening in the state of Florida. I hope you’ll come out to the CMC on Tuesday and share in the viewing of these films.
A press release is available for members of the media.
I’d hoped we could decide democratically what we wanted to work on this semester, but since we aren’t having our first meeting until halfway through the semester (it’s Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. in Reitz Union rm. 361), I think this term’s action is going to be by “executive decision.” In the fall, more people will be more involved and more knowledgeable, and we’ll have more time to plan, so the environment will be better for seeking wide input. Nevertheless, I want to know what people think of what we’re doing.
So, here are some ideas for what to do this semester. Please comment and discuss your reactions.
I think these are the only specific projects we can realistically tackle this semester. There is, however, some ongoing work being done, which may lead to specific action in future semesters:
As an aside, I have to say that, in my experience so far, UF is pretty enlightened compared to a lot of other schools (with the exception of ICARUS, which, as we understand, is being mitigated in the next version.)
Please comment here or email me and let me know how you feel. Too ambitious? Something important missing? Should the priorities be somewhere else? I want to hear from you.
I apologize for taking so long to blog about this, but here’s some info about Florida Free Culture’s appearance at the Levin College of Law’s Music Law Conference 2005:
The night before the conference, I stayed up until 5 a.m. putting together our material — and it still came out looking like a sixth-grade science project, but I did my best, darn it.
Florida Free Culture is officially registered as a student organization. Rock on!
Stay tuned to this Web site as well as the FFC mailing list (see the righthand side of this page to subscribe) for announcements about upcoming events. We look forward to working with you all!
Florida Free Culture is a student group at the University of Florida. Our mission is:
We are named for Lawrence Lessig's book, Free Culture, and are a chapter of FreeCulture.org.
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