4 ms·
It’s a bit annoying though when people complain about cutting federal funding for PBS under the guise of “saving Big Bird,” yet the taxpayer doesn’t have access
by briandear 8y ago
It’s a bit annoying though when people complain about cutting federal funding for PBS under the guise of “saving Big Bird,” yet the taxpayer doesn’t have access to the fruits of those tax dollars. Similar to publicly funded research being hidden behind paywalls. If PBS has the money (some from taxes) to make the programming, they should have enough to provide the content for free either via their own streaming services or via commercial services.
- khrbrt 8y agoAt the very least, declare it all public domain, and provide BitTorrent links. Maybe something like Popcorn Time for PBS and other public domain works
- ghaff 8y agoThey're often not public domain works and are not fully funded by taxpayers.
- mcny 8y agoSo maybe we should require it to be public domain? We complain about the government using proprietary software like Microsoft Windows so why not complain about royalties and copyright licensing agreements? The whole industry makes no sense to me. It makes no sense to be that Netflix doesn't own full, unrestricted rights to house of cards without paying anyone anything extra after the work is completed (residual).
- justincormack 8y agoThey could but it would cost more to make as the people would want to be paid more without a residual.
- mtberatwork 8y agoThey do have a free streaming service and they do stream stuff through YouTube. The availability of a show will depend on the licensing restrictions they have from the content producers though. It's the member stations that are the ones who are producing all of the content (or licensing it from other broadcasters (e.g. BBC) and production houses (e.g. Ken Burns).
- altfredd 8y agoAh, right. The "that guy did it" excuse. If they aren't legally obliged to purchase "broadcasting right" from "members", they can always stop doing so. If they ARE legally obliged (or forced by corporate mob, depending on your preferences) to engage in the rent-seeking, their budget founding should be permanently set to zero.