There are thousands of copyrighted works whose copyright holders cannot be found. “Orphan works have led to complications not only in publishing but also in digitizing projects, preservation efforts, and the creation of works like film and video documentaries. This week, at the urging of prominent legal scholars, academic-library organizations, technology companies such as Google and Microsoft, and many other interested parties, the U.S. Copyright Office is holding a series of hearings to determine whether copyright law should change to allow for more liberal use of orphan works.”
Tag: 07.25.05
The Old Vic’s Day Of Reckoning
London’s Old Vic is launching an ambitious project to find the 50 most talented young people in the city’s theatre scene, and to give them exactly 24 hours to do something impressive with their moment in the spotlight. “Over the span of a single night and day teams that have never worked together before must write, produce and perform plays. At 10pm the ‘companies’, each consisting of a playwright, a director, a producer and a handful of actors, is put together for the first time. The playwrights have all night to come up with a script; cast and crew have from 7am to rehearse it and learn their lines, before curtain up at 8pm. It’s terrifying for old timers, let alone newcomers. Yet the practice of creating a piece of theatre in the crucible of such a short time is not only invigorating but also immensely instructive.”
Is Dublin’s Abbey Still Relevant?
With Dublin’s historic Abbey Theatre in the throes of a powerful fiscal crisis, Mary Kenney worries that a large percentage of the Irish public may not be interested in saving it. “Although they say, in opinion polls, that that they approve of a national theatre, not enough ordinary people really go there. [BBC soap operas] Coronation Street and EastEnders, along with Irish television soaps such as Fair City, now provide the everyday stories that were once part of the Abbey repertoire. When you go to the Abbey these days, the audience is often composed of visiting Americans and the well-heeled Dublin bourgeoisie. After it is “restructured”, with proper subsidies, I hope that it will connect more to the life of the people.”
Waiting For A Half-Century
Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece of 20th century drama, Waiting For Godot, is almost more of a caricature than a touchstone these days, with parodies abounding. Even so, 50 years after its premiere, Godot “has lost none of its power to astonish and to move, but it no longer seems self-consciously experimental or obscure. With unerring economy and surgical precision, the play puts the human animal on stage in all his naked loneliness. Like the absolute masterpiece it is, it seems to speak directly to us, to our lives, to our situation, while at the same time appearing to belong to a distant, perhaps a non-existent, past.”
Probably Shoulda Seen This Coming
“An abridged version of the Broadway hit Spamalot will open in Las Vegas in 2007 at a custom-built theatre. Casino impresario Steve Wynn plans to stage the show at his Nevada resort at a cost of more than $50m. The musical, written by Eric Idle and based on the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, opened on Broadway in March and won three Tonys in June.”
So Aside From The Crippling Deformity…
There are no more castrati, of course, and for very good reason. Over a century ago, the world got together and decided that the practice of castrating boys in their early teens so as to preserve their high voices into adulthood was barbaric, regardless of how nice a sound resulted from the assault. “A new exhibition, however, is hoping to overcome the public’s squeamishness on the subject by telling the stories of the band of castrati singers who worked for the composer George Frideric Handel. It will show that for all the pain caused in the 17th and 18th centuries, when up to 4,000 boys a year were castrated in the service of art, the rewards could be immense. They earned fortunes far in excess of what Handel himself earned and more than other singers of the time. They were like the pop stars of today.”
Now Under Construction: The New London
Towering skyscrapers and 80-story skylines have so far largely eluded Europe’s major cities, but that is starting to change, with London the latest metropolis to consider the addition of massive new superstructures. In fact, London currently has 31 major new developments underway, £100 billion worth of construction waiting to happen, and they will likely change the face of one of the world’s most venerated cities.
Two Companies, One Huge Frickin’ Photo Archive (And It’s Free!)
“Two of America’s major photographic houses have launched a joint venture to provide one of the largest freely available archives of pictures on the internet. The collaboration between New York’s International Centre of Photography and George Eastman House is expected to include at least 200,000 images by the time it is fully set up next year. They want to add thousands more to this number when rights agreements have been reached with individual photographers or their estates.”
Basic Fairness Or Restraint Of Trade?
The UK is about to become party to “a new law by which a living artists or their heirs for 70 years after their death will receive a cut of about 3 per cent whenever a piece is sold. Some commentators argue that this gives poor artists a slice of future success. Others believe it threatens to cripple the market. The law is causing conflict throughout Europe, especially in Britain, where the Patent Office is currently deciding how to implement it. The levy, called ‘droit de suite’ or ‘artist’s resale right’, was initiated in 1920s France to help impoverished artists and their heirs. In 2006 it is due to be introduced across the European Union in order to stop vendors from avoiding the levy by moving sales away from France, Germany and four other European countries in which the law now applies.”
Art & Animals In Oz
“Now in its third year, the South Australian Museum’s Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize has become one of the nation’s prestige art competitions. A record 609 entries were received for the 2005 event, with 109 short-listed for the final judging next week.” The competition also has to be one of the world’s most specific art contests, intended to “promote and recognise excellence in art that depicts natural history or wildlife… a noticeable number of artists have also brought topical global issues, such as climate change and sustainability, into their work. However, under the rules of the competition, no man-made elements or settings are allowed to be depicted.”