Dominance and Submission

So I didn't get to see Isbin last weekend, as we all suspected she sold out. (I'm considering making a case for Aspen this summer, and that last sentence en't helping.) I did go to some bizarre hippy ritual instead, and took pictures even! Too dark out for the Populist, and my cell-phone camera takes too big a pictures for any sort of transmission but honest physical movement. So until I feel I can afford a miniSD card you won't be seeing those either.

Nevermind that. After beholding Kaiju last Friday I enjoyed a couple related clips on GooTube. Alas, it also reminded me of what a quagmire of copyright violation it is and how its freakish landscape will undoubtedly change with the introduction of $∞ billion. Is there no citadel for the accumulation of the species's knowledge in video form?

Of course there is. Wired and Lifehacker have made mention of The Internet Archive recently, but due to a variety of hawt weblabels I've known of its secrets for a long time. Everything public domain shakes down to it, even if Disney is trying to prevent the public domain from ever happening again. So in the spirit of Do The Math's WikiTube posts I'll share the treasures I've mined out of archive.org.

1) A surprising number of important feature length films have lapsed into the public domain for a variety of reasons. You've perhaps heard of a movie along the lines of Night of the Living Motherfucking Dead. Also worth checking out on a first run-through is Gulliver's Travels, the first non-Disney animated feature film and the first successful use of rotoscoping. And who gets that money when you buy the DVD of Reefer Madness anyway?

2) Don't be blinded by all the feature films, I've certainly been blinded by all the Coronet Instruction Films. These films aren't as oppresive and malevolent as they may seem at first blush, but are certainly artifacts from an alien civilization. There's a interest spike around Are You Popular?, but that's probably from getting slashdotted or dugg or whatever. (Also the devastatingly acidic line that happens around 1:40) Make sure spend some time brushing up on Lunchroom Manners and How to Say No (and Still Keep Your Friends).

3) And perhaps most importantly, scores of people use the power of Creative Commons to add their own work to the collective. The most intriguing I've found thus far is, as my cohort in pretension would say, a meta-discussion of the public domain examining the case of the Amen break. You have heard this drum break, this is a statement and not a question. You might not know it, but one you watch this you will hear it everywhere. To be haunted is worth it to be informed.