This one nearly snuck by me unnoticed:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- National Archives films to be sold on Amazon for $19.99 in non-exclusive deal. http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_6508029 The public will be able to purchase copies of thousands of historic films and videotapes via the Internet under an agreement the National Archives has reached with Amazon.com Inc. and one of its subsidiaries. ...The Archives will initially make its collection of Universal Newsreels, dating from 1920 to 1967, available for purchase. Thousands of other public domain and government films will be made available later, officials said. "While the public can come to our College Park, Md., research room to view films and even copy them at no charge, this new program will make our holdings much more accessible to millions of people who cannot travel to the Washington, D.C. area," Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein said in a statement." ...Archives and CustomFlix officials stressed that the agreement is non-exclusive, unlike the controversial semi-exclusive deal the Smithsonian Institution recently struck with the cable television network Showtime. That deal upset filmmakers who said it was improper to require documentarians using Smithsonian materials to offer their work first to Showtime."
