Sunday, October 17, 2004

About Old Time Radio

I have a major question regarding the "copyright" of Old Time Radio.

How can those low-budget sites get away with selling these OTR on discs then?

Jezner.com continually posts shows like the Shadow from the period known to be under copyright from previous posts by the Turbaned One at the Cobalt Club website. (The Shadow 1937-1954 Conde Nast Recently Applied and won Copyright --Nov. 3, 2003).

OTRCAT.COM sells The Shadow from these periods.

There are other examples.
My major gripe is that these shows cannot possibly be major moneymakers. They are way too overpriced at bookstores in the audio section. If more people got to hear Fibber McGee, more people would like it, and maybe they would take them and start a new TV show, with the first OTR material being free for avid fans.
I think that television is trying this now with the cheap price of DVD. Now they can collect whole seasons in a nice little package (I got The Prisoner TV show from Columbia House on cassette and those 17 episodes take up a ton of space on the shelf). But I would tell any TV exec this: why should I buy CSI when it is now on at least twice a night (Spike TV)? Some people do, if they are avid fans. I really really like the show but I would not pay for it. I really really like OTR but I admit that I would not pay for these shows.
I really don't know where this is going...I should have outlined it first...but I really think that copyright was intended to prevent plagiarism of ideas, not prevent people from seeing the shows. I think CSI should be available for free off of CBS.com or something--just keep the commercials tacked on to it! If you want the commercials off, pay for it. Or watch CSI on tv with commericals. If OTR was available on radio easily (notice they don't have a Radio Guide anymore and finding the shows on is difficult if not impossible). I personally listen to Radiospirits.com online most days. I wouldn't even mind if they put commericals in it if it meant more choice.
With burnable DVDs becoming standard technology for our regular TV system soon, is Pay Per View going to be the downfall of the DVD?
Thanks for listening,Matt

No comments: