Topic: The Movie Thread

@RogerRoger I personally wouldn't pay for it, or more specifically there hasn't been a title which I'm eager enough to fork out 15 - 20 quid for. But I think it is a fair price seeing the price of a cinema ticket alone, then you factor in travel, treats and drinks, parking costs etc.

@nessisonett I assume it is becasue they paid the money for those rights when doing the original animated movies? I could be wrong, as I've not looked into it.

@JohnnyShoulder It’s just a bit crap. You don’t see companies paying for the rights to the Bible and that’s also really a collection of folk tales passed down the generations just like a lot of fairy tales. Not that I’m saying that the Bible is full of fairy tales, more that they’re spread the same way.

@nessisonett No, I think you were right the first time about the bible. 😉

@JohnnyShoulder They're in the public domain so anyone can make a Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Cinderella (and so on) film. Disney would not have needed to license them - which I imagine was part of the appeal in the first place - and cannot claim to own the rights to those stories. They do however own the copyright for their specific adaptations.

@JohnnyShoulder With the Mulan being extra thing, I get Disney's reasoning behind it not being included in the streaming service's regular price but on the consumer end it was hard not to have a "but how is that my problem" attitude. It felt too much like Disney was asking you to pay them twice.

But to be fair, I didn't care all that much about Mulan whereas I might have been more amenable if it'd been something I actually wanted to see.

@nessisonett nah, fairy tales. be a much better world when we can all safely say that.

Welcome to capitalism. People are already sticking price tags on the minerals found in asteroids and comets, too. Literally everything is a commodity. Once it's standardized for everyone to have devices implanted in their brains to regulate emotion, we'll be paying to unlock extremes of affection, patience, lust, etc. Once the cities of the world are too polluted for people to breathe, we'll be paying for clean air to breathe, like they do in some parts of china.

@Ralizah

@nessisonett 😂 The irony of Disney telling a future tale of the dystopian world it was instrumental in creating. Genius.

I watched Mangrove tonight, the first instalment of the Small Axe anthology by Steve McQueen (not that one, the other one). I’d say it counts as the movie thread as it was in all intents and purposes, a movie, despite airing on TV. It was utterly brilliant as I expected it would be. Steve McQueen’s directorial style is as captivating now as it was when he first debuted with Hunger. I’m ashamed to say I probably know more about Black American history than Black British history, despite being from here. It’s just not as heavily discussed and so I’m happy to be educated. It’s an anthology of 5 movies so I’m definitely excited for next week’s instalment.

@RogerRoger Length of copyright is the life of the author plus seventy years. Cliff Richard was referring to Performers Rights which is different as he did not own the copyright for his songs (having not written or produced them) and can expire within the lifetime of the performer.

@RogerRoger The Berne Convention is simply the minimum term. Many countries have legislated longer terms of copyright protection, including the US and EU countries. It's interesting that it's media companies such as Disney that successfully lobbied to have the term extended. There's certainly an argument to be made that long IP protections stifle creativity and the ability of people to economically exploit their own work without being heavily sued.

This link outlines the UK's own copyright terms. https://www.gov.uk/copyright/how-long-copyright-lasts
Films 70 years after the death of the director, screenplay author and composer
It's worth mentioning that terms based on publication date (such as where copyright is owned by a corporation), have been well extended beyond 50 years.

Obviously Disney is a US company, but the length is generally the same there. Works such as Steamboat Willie will enter the public domain in a few years, creating a headache for them. However, I've no doubt they will lobby for terms to be extended again.

Damn, 70 years + Cliff Richard equals... the Dark Ages?

@RogerRoger No worries, it’s a topic I find fascinating. I don’t get split ends either. The main issue with the Berne Convention and the TRIPS Agreement, is that countries are forced to sign up to in order to gain WTO membership. Its primary aim is to protect Western European and North American IP. And of course, the US can continue extending its copyright terms into perpetuity at the behest of corporate lobbyists, and other countries will follow suit. The question is should IP ownership be concentrated in enormous companies such as Disney and for such long periods, thus leading to a depletion of truly original ideas? It doesn’t matter whether Disney are in the wrong, their sheer economic power enables them to crush anyone that stands up to them. IP litigation is very costly and most individuals and small businesses simply can’t afford to stand up to Disney - whether they are in the right or not.

Copyright is one thing but when we get into patents, it is quite nefarious as it enables large Western companies such as pharmaceutical firms to patent the natural resources used in medicines, preventing the poor countries that hold the bulk of the world’s natural resources from exploiting them. The medicines are then sold back to them at exorbitant prices. It stifles economic development in poor countries and runs counter to the idea that WTO membership enables development. It doesn’t, it keeps rich countries rich and poor countries poor. Anyway that’s veering well off topic so I’ll stop!

@RogerRoger I can see it now, a Noir thriller with Mickey Mouse on the stand. He’s smoking of course and is basically Al Capone. The jury have been paid off or intimidated.

@RogerRoger We'll change the names, make Mickey a raccoon and Donald an emu.

The Snyder Cut’s trailer got a new official black and white version which honestly looks amazing. I wouldn’t think of it working at all in B&W but it strangely totally suits it. I’d probably watch the whole thing in B&W if they gave us the option.

Honestly the idea of watching a film like JL in black and white feels unnecessary to me

Logan Noir worked because that film was considerably more grounded, smaller scale and could pass off as a non-comic book related film.

@TheFrenchiestFry It did to me too until I saw the trailer. The special effects look a lot better and it just works, I dunno why.

Terminator Dark Fate. Not awful but not great either, and just felt like I was watching a rubbish version of T2 with some tweaks. Not too keen on some of the ways they handled the story and some of the characters either.

@JohnnyShoulder I'd say it was a fair bit better than terminator 5 but overall it was just a bit generic. They took the really cool and originally named skynet and renamed it Legion which is just bland and used in everything.

I quite liked the new characters though played by Mackenzie Davis and Gabriel Luna but yeah overall I thought it was not great but miles better than genisys