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SW, Copyrights, and The Library of Congress — Page 2

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Hi there,

Sorry to just barge in on your conversation BTW.

Was interested in your posts as I did a seaarch a few weeks back on the Smithsonian website, and could not find the films. Am glad to hear that they exist somewhere (and are hopefull well looked after).

You have a point about the studio as author thing - but usually doesn't the studio then own the negatives and distribution rights? Was it part of George Lucas' best deal ever in history that he is able to mess with and distribute the films (rather than 20th Century Fox)?

I hope that the first Star Wars trilogy is going the sad way of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, as the original cut of the film has been completely lost. The this loss only happened because later people had a fabulous time re-cutting it for "improvement". Same with story with a couple of other films I think.

Am just suprised that people don't seem to find the 1997 re-edit completely scandalous.
I'm altering the bargain. Pray I don't alter it any further...
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Originally posted by: Darth Simon
... but from what they told my i get the impression that the archival copies are put in the high tech storage and 'locked away' so to speak.

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Originally posted by: imperialProbeDroid
Hi there,

Sorry to just barge in on your conversation BTW.


Damn well better be sorry

heh, no glad to have your input to the conversation.

I think it would be great if a digital copy of the film could be made. But like i said, I dont think they give access to the archival copies at all, maybe if you were a very well respected/world renowned film presevationist or something you would be able to see it, but even then from what Im told making copies would be impossible unless you could of course find some employee thats willing to 'bend the rules' for you 'off the record' or course.

But as im sure people know, each time you watch the film you degrade it, so It would be really hard to get the LoC to let you view their archival copy. We can dream though right? I for one am relieved to some extent knowing that a copy (or two) of the original Star Wars movies is exists (well very likely exists) and is in the hands of a place like the LoC where its gonna be preserved using the utmost care and best methods available. Even though I may never get to see it, its just comforting to know its not totally lost.

-Darth Simon
Why Anakin really turned to the dark side:
"Anakin, You're father I am" - Yoda
"No. No. That's not true! That's impossible!" - Anakin

0100111001101001011011100110101001100001

*touchy people disclaimer*
some or all of the above comments are partially exaggerated to convey a point, none of the comments are meant as personal attacks on anyone mentioned or reference in the above post
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You can't keep everyting forever - did some work at a museum a while back, and they put things out on display even though they know that they will degrade. There is also this big museum trend to digitise collections. They have huge money-sucking projects devoted to it.

Maybe one day they will do a digital transfer in the name of conservation - and find that it magically escapes the museum (as digital things do)...

What did we do before file sharing?

Here's to hoping!
I'm altering the bargain. Pray I don't alter it any further...