Posted by Walter Traprock on 07/12/06 08:49

"G. M. Watson" <gmgw@pop2.intergate.ca> wrote:

> 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

If quality is the concern, bad quality is better than none.

Paramount, etc., doesn't want their old films released at all,
as they feel their classic product will steal sales from brand
new releases.

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