Posted by G. M. Watson on 07/12/06 08:31

What's good about this news? When films are in the public domain, there's no
incentive for DVD companies, especially ones who specialize in deep-discount
product, to release quality prints (let alone with extras). Public domain
may appear at first sight to be a boon, but it only cheats the consumer in
the long run. I remember, during the early days of VHS, haunting the video
racks of the local K-Marts and picking up tapes of films like "Rules of the
Game", the Murnau "Nosferatu","Birth of a Nation", and "Alexander Nevsky" (I
passed on the ubiquitous-to-this-day "Angel and the Badman") for $4.99
apiece. Those tapes proved to be, as a rule, unwatchable. It wasn't until
the advent of companies like Criterion that we were able to acquire quality
copies of classic films. Even now I can walk into my local super drugstore
and find el cheapo public-domain DVDs. And they will likely be just as
crummy as those VHS tapes 20 years ago. Public domain is an empty promise.
GMW

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