A Xmas Message

May 2024 Forums General discussion A Xmas Message

  • This topic has 88 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 10 years ago by Anonymous.
Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 89 total)
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  • #99304
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    So far you are fortunate but You Tube will remove the video if they get pulled up for it.http://www.youtube.com/yt/copyright/ "When a copyright holder or their authorized representative notifies us of a YouTube video that infringes their copyright, we remove the content promptly." http://www.youtube.com/yt/copyright/faq.html#c-crm It is simply the numbers are so great that many get away with it for so long but i have many you tube clips on blogs that have been deleted after a tinme. Our political enemies would speed the process by informing the copyright holder of the infringment – e.g. it happened when the Canadian conservative party used Imagine , or if it simply becomes so popular (very unlikely) that it comes to their attention. We should not expect Yoko Ono to agree to our use since that would be more or less her endorsement of one particular political party.  Any Party video must be free of copyright issue or it just won't be broadcast on tv. We should also have a radio audio script for use …something much easier to accomplish…just  good speaking voice and some overdubbing. That can be combined with a video using clips and stills. Aside from an election video presenting an overview of the party and its positions , i favour a series of videos on specific topics, addressing each social problem , all concluding in a similar fashion – the need for political action for socialism to solve them. Too often we can describe the problems, as many others do, but we fail to explain our unique strategy for change sufficiently or highlight our own party role and why we appeal for actual support as well as understanding. 

    #99305
    steve colborn
    Participant

    Exactly Vin, your loving sister Eileen, using hubbys monicker.More please!

    #99306
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    "Unfortunately, due to the withdrawal of two key members from the project, it is not going to be possible to produce a video" – EC reportDespite the feelings of some, i still believe that outsourcing professionally rather than being reliant upon volunteers may cost more but in the long term is the way to go.He who pays the piper calls the tune so we should not be averse to hiring experts as we still as a party exercise editorial control. After all, we have now surrendered the sovereignty of our party funds to independent outsiders to invest on our behalf. With the fact that any video will compete with millions of others, we need every tip and advantage we can get to gain internet exposure. We also require the talents and technical insight and knowledge of others to produce an effective video series. 

    #99307
    Anonymous
    Inactive
    alanjjohnstone wrote:
    "Unfortunately, due to the withdrawal of two key members from the project, it is not going to be possible to produce a video" – EC reportDespite the feelings of some, i still believe that outsourcing professionally rather than being reliant upon volunteers may cost more but in the long term is the way to go.

    Erm, Socialism will be reliant upon volunteers and why outsource 'professionally' (i.e. pay) when we have a socialist willing and able to undertake the project?

    #99308
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

     " why outsource 'professionally' (i.e. pay) when we have a socialist willing and able to undertake the project?"Just as we did previously have a committment from  "two key members " – who subsequently couldn't fulfil it.  We cnnot attach any blame because  personal or work reasons will invariably interfere with good intentions. That is one difference with voluntarism in socialism and volunteering while having to exist under capitalism now. Also hopefully the pool of volunteers in socialism with all the savvy will be a lot bigger.  Why were they key members? i hazard a guess that they had the training, the experience and the technical know-how and access to equipment. We also have the history of a volunteer member, also with the requisite technical talents,  undertaking to digitalise and place all the Standard archive online and after almost 10 years for various reasons this has not been achieved. To emphasise, when we enter into out-sourcing we have an agreement that holds failure to deliver as breach of contract that we can refuse to pay for any work done or demand compensation for the failure to complete the task or finish it on an agreed time-scale. Please don't let my comments distract from the excellent work of Vin has been doing and hopefully he will continue but i am sure he will be the first to admit that he has not got the same skills as someone, who has trained on the subject at some educational establishment and served his apprenticeship and  who now does internet/web projects for a living and i am sure he will also admit he lacks many of the expensive and complicated computer programmes at a professional's disposal.I have often argued with Paddy that let a 1000 flowers bloom should be our approach to propaganda and live with the various levels of competence and degrees of success. My only concern is that if a video is done in the name of the party for party propaganda purposes such as election broadcasts that will be put on air we take the same care in selecting who performs the work as we will when it comes to replacing the HO central heating gas boiler.We also have to be assured that it is perfectly permissible under law, otherwise those funds we possess will swiftly disappear as we get sued or stitched  up in lawyers fees for a choice in music ! What we do still require is volunteers to oversee a sub-contracted task to chek it is done to our satisfaction but the demands on time and energy for such is much less pressing than being expected to carry out the project. But this is all straying away from the thread so once more i congratulate Vin on his Xmas video and trust he will produce a lot more in the future.  Imagine may be a good song but it is not a necessity for a good socialist video. I will genuinely be surprised if you get a reply from Yoko much less permission, but first you have to get through her legal department!! But what have you got to lose…nothing ventured, nothing gained, don't ask, don't get.LENONO MUSIC1 W. 72ND ST. , NEW YORK, , 10023  

    #99309
    ALB
    Keymaster

    An excerpt from the December EC Minutes has been given, in fact it was from a report from the election committee to the EC, but not the follow-up. The EC rejected the election committee's recommendation to drop the party election video and passed instead the following resolution:

    Quote:
    Motion 17 – Foster and Cox moved that the EC authorises Cdes M Foster and J Mercer to use existing scripts to explore other ways of producing an election film, which need to be completed before the end of March 2014. Agreed.

    The two comrades are already working on this on the basis of a script which had already been agreed and which concentrates on putting over the positive case for (world) socialism and how it would affect people's everyday life (as opposed to attacking our political opponents).A previous EC Meeting (in September) had considered a request from South West Regional Branch to seek permission to use "Imagine". This was not agreed:

    Quote:
    Cox and Craggs moved that the EC makes an informal approach to the PRS to find out costs and the likelihood of using the lyrics of the song Imagine. Lost (2-5-0)
    #99310
    Anonymous
    Inactive
    alanjjohnstone wrote:
     he has not got the same skills as someone, who has trained on the subject at some educational establishment and served his apprenticeship and  who now does internet/web projects for a living and i am sure he will also admit he lacks many of the expensive and complicated computer programmes at a professional's disposal.

     Yes I agree – to a point – but I do have the expesive software and I am a life time musician with very expensive sound equipment.I should point out that the video was a 'test',  it only took a few hours of work,  all the material is there on the internet. I decided to publish on youtube on impulse. I will go it alone and produce some videos without mentioning the SPGB  

    #99311
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    When you post your future videos,  link to your new blog and have the party's link there.   That is a way around it, i believe. 

    #99312
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I will do that! The more videos the better! It has been pointed out to me that YOKO nailed  someone for copyright but then the words conflicted with his own right-wing philosophy http://rabble.ca/news/2011/04/imagine-yoko-ono-nails-stephen-harper-copyright-infringement 

    #99313
    jondwhite
    Participant
    alanjjohnstone wrote:
    As been pointed out , most music and lyrics are copy-right. Don't be at all surprised when You Tube eventually pulls your video, it isn't political censorship, but them watching their legal back.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Imagine.oggSo i found a link to non-royalty music that anyone attempting to do a video should first explore for a suitable sound track. https://creativecommons.org/legalmusicforvideosLenono Music are the rights holder of Imagine. You could try requesting Yoko Ono for permission but she is highly protective of it and personally i think you haven't a piece of a chance getting it. 

    The sample above does require royalties when use outside of fair use, e.g. a promotional video.That aside, I do agree under capitalism, a professional job generally requires the party outsourcing it and there is a general reluctance to do this. Fair enough, when the argument was that the SPGB did not have the money to do so, not so credible now.As for the moral case, I'm a little more sceptical. This is a tactic that those with more money can more loudly argue. e.g. Live Aid, Bono, Geldof, etc.

    #99314
    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Vin Maratty wrote:
    I will go it alone and produce some videos without mentioning the SPGB 

    That would be a great shame.  Better to produce an SPGB video without using copyrighted material.

    ALB wrote:
    An excerpt from the December EC Minutes has been given, in fact it was from a report from the election committee to the EC, but not the follow-up. The EC rejected the election committee's recommendation to drop the party election video and passed instead the following resolution:

    Quote:
    Motion 17 – Foster and Cox moved that the EC authorises Cdes M Foster and J Mercer to use existing scripts to explore other ways of producing an election film, which need to be completed before the end of March 2014. Agreed.

    I would strongly urge the new EC, which meets on January 4th, to reconsider this decision.  With the greatest respect to the two comrades, and to the best of my knowledge, they do not have the expertise and time that Vin Maratty clearly does.  In order to meet the required deadline of the end of March 2014, the EC should request him to work expeditiously on an election video using existing scripts.

    #99315
    Anonymous
    Inactive
    gnome wrote:
      In order to meet the required deadline of the end of March 2014, the EC should request him to work expeditiously on an election video using existing scripts.

     I would appreciate a copy of the scripts so far in order  to see if the project is within my capabilities, tho' I can't see why not and I don't think we would be breaking the official secrets act  vinmaratty@googlemail.com  

    #99316
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Not a popular position, I know, but it needs to be mentioned.  The song concerned says nothing about socialism, the person who wrote it had no socialist understanding and the whole thing stinks of hippy-ass, idealistic bullshit.  On a personal note, it makes me feel sick to hear it and I don't want the party to be associated with it.  Forget it.

    #99317
    steve colborn
    Participant

    Indeed the song does not explicitly mention the term "Socialism" but in all other ways it is a statement "for" an alternative society. A few years ago, John Bissett, in a letter to the press, said it was written using  the Communist Manifesto as inspiration, I tend to agree with his analysis. Saying it, " stinks of hippy-ass, idealistic bullshit" is, I would hazard to say, a tad harsh to say the least. There are many things in the Capitalist system that makes me personally sick, the song Imagine, I have to say, is not one of them! The ineluctable Stevie C.

    #99318
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Comrade Vein shares Comrade Chambers feelings about the song and has said so often on the other list but of course many other comrades disagree. That is to be expected. We cannot all share the same musical tastes. But i speak as someone who came into the socialist movement as a half ass hippie idealist, just as others later became involved with it  through the [full ass ] punk music scene.  However, i do take issue that the song is not an anthem of socialists. I challenge anybody to come up with another song that has lyrics as closely in tune (pun intended) with our own aim as Imagine. (Candy Rock Mountain by Shirley Temple, may be a contestant !!) As Lennon said,  Imagine  " is anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic… but because it is sugar-coated, it is accepted." and i will add to the point that it has been played in Liverpool Cathedral as a religious hymn!! But again we need not exaggerate its importance by claiming things for it which may not be true. JohnB was in error saying that it was the Communist Manifesto that inspired the song. JohnL himself has explained the background…it was spurred by a Yoko Ono poem. http://www.beatlesbible.com/people/john-lennon/songs/imagine/ Vin may be interested to know that the Party has its own song and i believe accompanying music. Perhaps someone could send a copy to him so perhaps he can put the words to his own music or re-arrange the song's music into a more modern sound . Another way to by-pass copyright. 

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