The President’s disaster tour is already underway. Steve “Yo” Harper from Canada surely sends his condolences/laughter to the shattered nation of 50 united states.
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On a completely serious note, I find it disheartening that all NFB films are not available on the Internet for free, especially to Canadians. Perhaps the NFB needs piles of cash to keep operating, in which case I suppose some films might need to be kept on sale only. But shouldn’t Canada’s film history from a past generation be made available to Canadians and the world as easily as we can load up the latest American TV show, or YouTube stars’ vlogs?
@hotmail.com
![[EFC Blue Ribbon - Free Speech Online]](http://www.efc.ca/images/efcfreet.gif)
Devin Johnston | 14-Jul-08 at 9:33 pm | Permalink
“I find it disheartening that all NFB films are not available on the Internet for free, especially to Canadians.”
I concur 100% with you on this one. There is no compelling reason, it seems to me, not to make these films freely available over the net. A fee could still be charged to distribute physical media.
scout | 14-Jul-08 at 10:02 pm | Permalink
omg, that was brilliant!!!
and yes, nfb for free!!!!
talk talk talk | 15-Jul-08 at 7:07 pm | Permalink
I’m with you on the NFB, especially their shorts and animated films. This would be great as I never could figure out where to actually SEE them. I’m sure they could generate revenue from ad placements on the film pages if they so needed to do that.
Sean | 17-Jul-08 at 5:26 pm | Permalink
Not just the NFB, but the CBC as well.
Saskboy | 17-Jul-08 at 5:31 pm | Permalink
Indeed, you’re right Sean. The majority of CBC TV drama and comedy and news programming should be available free on the Web by now. The radio has done a fair job, but TV needs to catch up by a mile. I don’t even know if they have their own YouTube channel. Rick Mercer’s show tries to lock people into a custom video player which is annoying.
It’s a bloody shame that we can’t watch The Beachcombers or Seeing Things, or Wayne and Shuster until our eyes fall out. We’re missing a huge opportunity to put Canadian media at the forefront of free media on the web. It would put a shot in the arm of our culture if the world saw Canada as a leader in entertainment because they can watch our programming.
Sean | 18-Jul-08 at 12:07 pm | Permalink
I. Want. Seeing. Things.
Louis Del Grande ROCKS! (Too bad that most people remember him as the owner of the head that Revok exploded in ‘Scanners’.)
In fairness to the CBC, I suppose there are all sorts of issues to work out such as compensation to the actors who appear in each piece of work, etc.
Saskboy | 18-Jul-08 at 12:46 pm | Permalink
True, and the Conservatives are missing an opportunity with their bogus copyright legislation reform, because they could limit copyright to something like 10 years and eliminate complications like that one.