Public's Right to Know video censored by Justice Dept

Begin forwarded message:

From: Chris Hodge <hodge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 30, 2004 12:56:38 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Public's Right to Know video censored by Justice Dept


Another item from Boing Boing (Saturday); for IP if you wish......

-------------------------------

Public's Right to Know video censored by Justice Dept

Michael [Ravnitzky] filed a Freedom of Information Act request the the
Justice Department to get it to release a movie called "The Public's 
Right
to Know." The Department released part of the video, but redacted 
sections
of it, claiming that since the video had been produced by a private
contractor who hadn't assigned copyright to the feds, they didn't have 
the
right to release it to him. How convenient. There's a reason that the 
feds
aren't allowed to copyright the stuff they make with our tax dollars: 
it's
stupid and dirty and irresponsible as hell to circumvent that duty to 
make
the public's bought-and-paid material available to the public by failing
to negotiate the rights when contracting out to the private sector

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/08/28/publics_right_to_kno.html
http://frazer.rice.edu/~mgpowell/mt/archives/000030.html
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Emgpowell/trainingvideo.html