So, if you read yesterday’s entry about The Book of Negroes you might have noticed a link to a wikipedia entry for a documentary called “Eyes On The Prize.”
Eyes documents the Black Civil Rights movement from the 50s into the mid 80s. This may be one of the greatest documentaries ever made on any subject. It doesn’t just tell the story, it really shows it. From original footage to music of the era, the doc is chock full of material intended to bring the viewer as close to the reality of life in the movement as possible. It runs about 12 hours in length, divided into 14 episodes. It first aired in 1987, on PBS in the US.
Unfortunately, the makers had to license most of the materials they used, and the license for most of it expired in 1995. It would cost the production company upwards of $200,000 to renew the license for mass DVD production. They barely managed to get it on the air again on PBS last fall, and there is a set of new videos available to universities at an essentially unaffordable price.
As original video copies wear down, a travesty almost occurred … a well-told story almost failed to get out to a new generation thanks to copyright law … but
P2P CAME TO THE RESCUE!
It’s all over bittorrent in mpeg format. It’s over 7 gigs, and it’s worth all of the time and bandwidth. This is your chance to know about one of the greatest historical events not just in US History but in Modern World History. Get it here.
And someone please go kick the shit out the people who won’t donate the rights for materials to be used in this doc. As soon as you are done, I will be first in line to buy the DVD.
PS: If you are curious about how passionately people felt about getting it up on p2p, check out the following comments at the Pirate Bay.
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