AMIA Newsbriefs

Will commercial deals help open up BBC archive to the public by 2022?

According to the director of BBC Vision, Jana Bennett, there are plans to launch an online catalogue of every TV and radio show the corporation has broadcasted by Christmas 2010. The BBC then plans to gradually make this material available to the public, with a deadline for digitising as many shows as possible - rights and other issues permitting - by the BBC's 100th anniversary in 2022.

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UNESCO launches new logo for World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

UNESCO is pleased to announce the new logo for the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, which was chosen from an impressive number of proposals submitted by designers and those interested in audiovisual heritage.

Read the story and see the logo here.

AFI, serving the cineastes of the world

It was launched in the Rose Garden by President Lyndon B. Johnson to advance and preserve the art of the moving image. For decades, the American Film Institute thrived doing just that. Now, like almost every other nonprofit organization knocked sideways by the recession, AFI finds itself having to script its own comeback story.

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Open Images from the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision

As part of Images for the Future, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and Knowledgeland are developing Open Images. The aim of this project is to offer online access to a selection of archive material to stimulate creative reuse. Reuse includes remixing of archive footage in new videos.

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Supreme Court to Reconsider Software Patents

"On November 9, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Bilski v. Kappos, a case that could have a big impact on the future of online video.

In 1997, Investors Bernard L. Bilski and Rand A. Warsaw attempted to patent a business method they had invented—specifically, a method of hedging risks. When brought to court, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected the patent. In its ruling, the appeals court stressed a test for patentability known as the “machine-or-transformation test.” This test establishes that a process is patentable in two instances: one, if it’s tied to a machine, or two, if it transforms something from one state to another. The appeals court left the decision’s effects on software ambiguous. Immediately after the initial Bilski ruling, the patent office rejected four applications from IBM, citing that a machine wasn’t necessary for their processes. "

Read the story here: http://openvideoalliance.org/2009/10/supreme-court-to-reconsider-software-patents/

“Slow Fires” and the Morgan Library

Our libraries are a promise and a threat. Where some see them as portals to an examined life, a life enriched by close, intimate encounters with our cultural documents, others see nothing that matters, or worse, only threats to their hidebound, dark orthodoxies.

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Mamba (1930) - Lost and Found

Mamba is a truly astonishing find because of the Tiffany Studio rarity and the sensational quality of the production. Also it represents the best technical qualities of the period, quite a gamble for such a small studio and its attempt to leap into A studio status.

Read the story here:  http://talkieking.blogspot.com/2009/10/mamba-1930-lost-and-found.html

Free iPhone app from Canada's National Film Board

Like indie films? Documentaries? Animation? Ho, boy, have I got an app for you: NFB Films lets you watch over a thousand movies on your iPhone. For free. The app taps the NFB's mammoth library of documentaries, animated films, trailers (for upcoming NFB releases), and more.

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Disney Touts a Way to Ditch the DVD

Walt Disney Co. is close to unveiling technology that it says will enable entertainment companies to adapt their business models to a new reality in which consumers increasingly rely on computers and cell phones in place of DVD players and TVs. The technology, code-named Keychest, could contribute to a shift in what it means for a consumer to own a movie or a TV show, by redefining ownership as access rights, not physical possession.

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Nirvanix Provides Permanent Digital Archive for National September 11 Memorial & Museum

Nirvanix, the premier enterprise cloud storage service provider, today announced that the Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network (SDN) is being used as the main digital archive platform for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum's permanent collection of audio, videoand photographs that chronicle the events of the day and their aftermath through the eyes of those who experienced it - both at the attack sites and around the world.

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