How Websites Are Helping To Spread The Joy Of Classic Films

Enter any Blockbuster in any town in the country and you will for sure encounter all the latest Hollywood hits, or horrors, depending on how you look at it. What is far scarcer and perhaps nonexistent on the shelves are the classic films, hits like Ma and Pa Kettle or Laurel and Hardy that you could sometimes catch on late night television when your parents thought you were asleep.

This disheartening lack of availability is leading to a lost generation who do not know the Swamp Thing, who thinks Edward Cullen is the hottest vampire of them all and to whom Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo and Cary Grant are names their parents uttered when in search of some dumb show.

This has all changed thanks to the bountiful world of copyright protection, many old classics are now entering the public domain, introducing viewers who think Gilligan's Island is classic TV to what Hollywood stardom on the big screen is really all about.

Just what is Public Domain and why does anyone Care?

The public domain is the arena films play in when there are no intellectual property rights at all influencing how they can and can't be used and distributed. This makes it convenient for websites to distribute these classic films on a wide-scale without the huge overhead costs associated with royalties and the like.

What does all this mean to the eager viewer of the classics whose going to be glued to the screen watching every film he can get his hands on? Websites like Hulu and Amazon have paid some punishing licensing fees to get copyrighted material on their sites. This results in a rather limited selection. The really obscure films aren't part of the selection at all. Film buffs the world over are engaging in teeth gnashing and going to eBay in hopes of scoring an original vintage copy of the film that someone is trying to unload.

Come now, like any genuine film aficionado would part with Metropolis let alone sell it to a complete stranger.

The Fact is the Internet IS the Public Domain

The internet is a fabulous invention because it opens up entire worlds in terms of public domain and makes all that is on the internet available to everyone, everywhere at whatever time they choose to surf.

Using the power of something that quite frankly, if you're sitting there reading this article you probably use on a daily basis anyway. And thanks to public domain and the Internet, it's now possible for a new generation of viewers to see the classics, in their original form, instead of these random remakes out there painting vintage films with a whole new face.

Expand your horizons. Earn the title of film buff. And show your kids there's a world beyond Twilight and the Green Lantern. When you're looking for a film for your next movie night, resist the urge to grab whatever's hot at Blockbuster (or Amazon) and hop onto the web to see what classic film opportunities could be sitting at your fingertips.