Illegal Video

With copyright law extending its reach, an artist's right to build on other people's work has been eroded, pushing some of the most creative material produced today into a legal gray area. The Illegal Art Exhibition has illustrated the problem by putting some of the most famous films from that gray area online.

Some of the movies here, such as Todd Haynes' Superstar, have been blocked from commercial distribution; others, such as Craig Baldwin's Tribulation 99, are merely risking such challenges. All of them would be perfectly permissible if the courts would take free speech and fair use seriously.

Comments

[Jim]

On the current interpretations and misuse of copywrite laws, I once heard someone say that it's a good thing no one copywrited the blues scale. I've half a mind to write a computer program that randomly generates melodies, copywrite them all and then sue anyone who's song comes too close to one of my library of a million melodies. Perhaps someone is already working on that...

[Anonymous]

You and Steve Allen.