Guy DeBord films - any copyright?
Mar 28 2007 13:22
Hi, I'm just wondering if there's any copyright to Guy Debord's films? I ask as I'm thinking of getting together an English subtitled release of his films as a budget DIY release as the French release of it has no English subtitles and it very very expensive for 3 DVD's.. I know Alice Becker-Ho is looking after his letter, does this extend to his films too? Any info would be greatly apreciated.
Mar 28 2007 13:54
#2
Thats what I was thinking.. There's none on his books so why would the films be any different
Mar 28 2007 15:46
#3
No i don't think there is. A lot of his films can be downloaded here:
http://www.ubu.com/film/debord.html
and the stuff about copyright is here if its any help to you
Quote:
What is your policy concerning posting copyrighted material?
If it's out of print, we feel it's fair game. Or if something is in print, yet absurdly priced or insanely hard to procure, we'll take a chance on it. But if it's in print and available to all, we won't touch it. The last thing we'd want to do is to take the meager amount of money out of the pockets of those releasing generally poorly-selling materials of the avant-garde. UbuWeb functions as a distribution center for hard-to-find, out-of-print and obscure materials, transferred digitally to the web. Our scanning, say, an historical concrete poem in no way detracts from the physical value of that object in the real world; in fact, it probably enhances it. Either way, we don't care: Ebay is full of wonderful physical artifacts, most of them worth a lot of money.Should something return to print, we will remove it from our site immediately. Also, should an artist find their material posted on UbuWeb without permission and wants it removed, please let us know. However, most of the time, we find artists are thrilled to find their work cared for and displayed in a sympathetic context. As always, we welcome more work from existing artists on site.
Let's face it, if we had to get permission from everyone on UbuWeb, there would be no UbuWeb.
Hope the DVD goes well, how much would you charge for them. I'd be interested in getting some, particularly society of the spectacle.
Mar 28 2007 15:49
#4
Pretty sure you can get them all online, i know KG has them all so i would imagine they are on other sites.
Mar 28 2007 23:39
#5
If I managed to get my hands on DVD quality files of the films, It'll be DVD-r with nice packaging and more than likely a reproduction of the Socociet Of The Spectacle book as well. I'll probably sell it for cost which would be about 5 euros or so.
Mar 30 2007 03:08
#6
gambra wrote:
If I managed to get my hands on DVD quality files of the films, It'll be DVD-r with nice packaging and more than likely a reproduction of the Socociet Of The Spectacle book as well. I'll probably sell it for cost which would be about 5 euros or so.
Bargain!! I'm in. 
Mar 30 2007 04:39
#7
I think SotS is on Chomsky torrents, although I strongly advise against anyone watching it, because it's terrible.
Mar 30 2007 09:25
#8
Lone Wolf wrote:
Bargain!! I'm in.
No, cos the films are all shit.
still good on you for doing them gambra!
Mar 30 2007 09:30
#9
karagara has society of the spectacle and can dialectics break bricks, SoS is dull as fuck and the Can Dialectics..... gets boring very quickly.
Mar 30 2007 09:49
#10
he also did some film which is just a black screen right? crazy guy...
Mar 30 2007 10:06
#11
John. wrote:
he also did some film which is just a black screen right? crazy guy...
by crazy guy you clearly mean utter cunt?
sure that prick Warhol did an 8 hour film of the Empire State building.
Mar 30 2007 11:00
#12
revol68 wrote:
Can Dialectics..... gets boring very quickly.
Yeah, that was really lame. I couldn't bear watching more than five minutes of it. "Ooh, we're so awesome, we're detourning kong-fu. Too bad we're too unimaginative to do anything cool with it, though." Kung Pow puts it to shame.
Mar 30 2007 11:01
#13
gambra wrote:
If I managed to get my hands on DVD quality files of the films, It'll be DVD-r with nice packaging and more than likely a reproduction of the Socociet Of The Spectacle book as well. I'll probably sell it for cost which would be about 5 euros or so.
Great price, i'll definately be up for that, as well as the book.
Mar 30 2007 11:12
#14
treeofjudas wrote:
revol68 wrote:
Can Dialectics..... gets boring very quickly.Yeah, that was really lame. I couldn't bear watching more than five minutes of it. "Ooh, we're so awesome, we're detourning kong-fu. Too bad we're too unimaginative to do anything cool with it, though." Kung Pow puts it to shame.
Kung Pow was utter shit, my old (suprisingly not brain damaged) housemates got it and "Dude! Where's my car?" out on rental, I never respected them after that.
Mar 30 2007 15:35
#15
I think Can Dialectics Break Bricks? is great. It's not made by Guy Debord, but Rene Vienet, and is as far as I know not copyrighted.
All Guy Debord's films are copyrighted, as is the Society of the Spectacle book. The copyright isn't really enforced though, and there are many "unauthorized" versions of both the book and the film, so I don't think you will get any problems distributing pirate versions of the films. If you are nervous about it, you can always ask Ken Knabb, who made the authorized English translation of all the film manuscripts (as well as an unauthorized translation of the book). His website is www.bopsecrets.org
We will probably be publishing an unauthorized Norwegian translation of Society of the Spectacle this fall.
Mar 30 2007 22:42
#16
John. wrote:
Lone Wolf wrote:
Bargain!! I'm in.Quote:
No, cos the films are all shit.Well obviously that is a matter of opinion but even if i consider them shit also all that for 5 euros - of course that is a bargain!!
Quote:
still good on you for doing them gambra!So it is good that he is producing them but not good i would like one of what he is producing??? So are you suggesting he just sits around surrounded with all the copies of what he has produced as some kind of indie architectural and cultural statment perhaps???
Love
LW X
Mar 31 2007 00:46
#17
Quote:
I think Can Dialectics Break Bricks? is great. It's not made by Guy Debord, but Rene Vienet, and is as far as I know not copyrighted.
It is shite, seriously once you get past the fact they have people in a kung fu movie talking sub situ shite it gets boring fast.
Mar 31 2007 01:16
#18
Sam wrote:
gambra wrote:
If I managed to get my hands on DVD quality files of the films, It'll be DVD-r with nice packaging and more than likely a reproduction of the Socociet Of The Spectacle book as well. I'll probably sell it for cost which would be about 5 euros or so.Great price, i'll definately be up for that, as well as the book.
I paid more than that for the book, and I never read it all the way through, my situ fanboy-ism only goes as far as thinking that the slogans were fucking sweet 
Though from the sounds of things, I'd probably love Can Dialectics...? for that exact reason, even more
Mar 31 2007 01:28
#19
Cool slogans?? That is as good a reason as any madas! 
Apr 2 2007 13:13
#20
Nice to see actual discussion going on! If there's actual interest I still may go ahead with the set!
Apr 2 2007 13:16
#21
yeah i mean the films suck but i'd buy them for 5 euro, if only to put them on the dvd shelf and look intellectual. especially as gav has put all the poncy books in the house in his room...
Apr 2 2007 18:00
#22
John. wrote:
Quote:
yeah i mean the films suck but i'd buy them for 5 euro, if only to put them on the dvd shelf and look intellectual.Exactly!
Quote:
especially as gav has put all the poncy books in the house in his room...
That was sneaky of him.... 
Apr 8 2007 15:48
#23
Gambra, at present the best versions of Debord's films with English subtitles are perhaps the bootlegs put out by Super Happy Fun. They consist of bootleg copies of the Gaumont DVDs with added English subtitles. The subtitles are not entirely satisfactory. Those for Howls for Sade, On the Passage of a Few Persons Through a Rather Brief Unity of Time, Critique of Separation and In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni are evidently taken from Ken Knabb's online texts. For this reason, they provide translations of neither the intertitles nor the dialogue in the detourned film clips, which sadly deprives the viewer of important dimensions of some of the films. The subtitles for The Society of the Spectacle are not Knabb's. I cannot recollect off the top of my head which one of the earlier translations the disc uses, but they are less clear than Knabb's rendering.
Apr 24 2008 08:00
#24
the Society of the Spectacle film sucks.. its on public torrent trackers if your interested
Apr 24 2008 18:28
#25
Didn't his wife bring out all his films after he died? I've tried to read some Debord so I could brag about and quote from him at wine and cheese parties, but it's all wank!
Apr 24 2008 19:05
#26
His autobiography is a great little read.
Apr 24 2008 20:28
#27
what do you intend on doing with your subtitled film. Is it for private use / student project / festival / museum or finally broadcasting? Depending on each of these:
a) Find out who has the copyright rights to the film - ie. there should be a holder out there somewhere you will need to contact- they might be able to grant you use of the film if you purchase a dvd if it is for private / student use.
if it is for fest / museum or for any public screening you will need to purchase it from them at a commercial rate which the company will determine rates wise.
finally if you want it for broadcasting ie. on television then you will need to use contracts etc, the rates in this incident can be quite high usually $50-$250 a second.
Apr 24 2008 20:30
#28
No copyright anyways. Actually, I am pretty sure guy debord is dead?
I'm pretty sure there isn't...