From: Jack Sargeant (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Mar 11 2006 - 12:22:48 PST
>
> I have more than once learned that articles I have written have been
> distributed to students in college classes, in some cases the same
> article being used semester after semester. My response when I first
> heard this about one article was to put it on my Web site for free,
> and I've put many more there since. But still, in the on-paper
> distribution cases, the instructor gets paid, the photocopy store and
> copier company get paid, the textbook companies and authors get paid
> because typically there are also textbooks required in such classes,
> the students pay plenty, and the writer of the distributed articles
> gets nothing. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times an
> instructor has written me asking permission to distribute articles.
>
oh come on.
this is absurd.
i've written a bunch of books on film, my books are taught as standard
texts in some colleges (and have been taught by people on this list)
and sure i get the odd cheque from ACPS and yes I get book royalties
(but most colleges buy a couple of copies and leave them in the library
for repeated readers, i only get paid once: when they buy them), but I
also write pieces for small journals and books and get NO money, and
sometimes that's ok too, and yes they are given to students and I get
nothing financial in return, but i get the satisfaction that people are
reading my words and thinking about what i am saying (even if they hate
it). if i wanted to make lots of money i'd be writing books and
articles about some crap sports personalities and not underground
filmmakers and so on.
i think that this moaning is nonsense. now, if somebody else published
your work in a bootleg, or sold copies of it without paying you, i'd
agree, but a handful of students reading one or two articles, give me a
break.
also, if they like your work they may track down other pieces in books
that they do pay for.
also, all this bitchin' about entry fees is equally dull, I've been to
Brisbane International Film Festival, Chicago Underground, New York
Underground, and Melbourne Underground, in each case I was curating
retrospectives and didn't have to pay to get work in there, but I did
pay for my hotels and flights and so on (not every time) and i did it
because i enjoy it, because i get to meet people, because i get to
watch movies. NOBODY at these festivals is rich, they work hard, they
look after people, they organize a festival, so get off their backs. if
you don't like it, don't submit your work, it's not rocket science.
Jack
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.