Seen and Not Seen

Home Sewing is Killing Fashion, Bo Peterson, 2006

I've become completely sick of Hollywood. Perhaps the odd classic blinded us to the fact that everything else was always shit? It seems 90% of films since around 1980 have been remakes, or "reimaginings". I'm alright with that if it improves upon the original - case in point, The Thing. But what seems ever more apparent is a churn of films from the past quarter-century being refilmed. Refilmed with the intention of milking everyone again. Name a Japanese or Korean horror film, a Hong Kong action film, any successful foreign film; and you'll find either part or all of it has been ground into a recent Hollywood production. Let The Right One In has a Hollywood remake in production before it even has a full release. Why?

In my eyes; the film industry, music industry, the major sports - all have been compromised by becoming businesses industries, rather than arts. Each one is basically in the stranglehold of a cabal of corporations which function as another branch of the forsaken banking sector. 'Lets invest in a movie - can I suggest we reimagine 2001 in 3D, with Vin Diesel as the narrator HAL and have a song and dance number in the middle to appeal to the 18-30 female demographic so we can maximise our returns' People will pay to be fed shit.

Since Hollywood is so intent on strip-mining culture, trawling the non-English-speaking world, and recycling their own output; I have simply stopped watching their films. I will have to hear rave reviews of Star Trek or Terminator: Salvation before I even consider handing over my money to see a single frame. The Da Vinci Code was abysmal, and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was foul - yet the bankers got my money because I looked at the screen.


As the EU extends copyright terms yet again, a lot of "pirates", like myself, are wondering when, if ever, will the produce of the abstract arts pass into public domain. Books, films, songs; all of them have contributed to our collective heritage. "The First Rule of Fight Club is..." we all know that line, it's part of our shared culture. Except it isn't. The words coming out of Brad Pitt's mouth belong to Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 1999. From what I can figure from current EU law, the moving-picture release Fight Club will be released into public domain in 2049. No doubt terms will be retroactively extended on the way.

Arthurian legend and the story of Robin Hood were passed on by word of mouth for centuries without anyone claiming legal ownership. Now we have the stories of Fox Mulder and Homer Simpsons in the vast ocean of modern entertainment - but good luck trying to develop a derivative work with either of those characters. Every time some media conglomerate pillages the public domain, it makes me question whether non-real legal-persons should be allowed access to it in the first place. Copyright once had a term of 21 years. Sonny Bono was a proponent of infinity minus one term. That is piracy.

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