[HN Gopher] HBO Max's Great Looney Tunes Purge
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       HBO Max's Great Looney Tunes Purge
        
       Author : lisper
       Score  : 114 points
       Date   : 2023-01-15 12:52 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (slate.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (slate.com)
        
       | shp0ngle wrote:
       | I still don't understand the accounting logic, under which it
       | makes sense for Warner Bross to stop putting shows _they own_ on
       | a service _they own_.
       | 
       | It's not like it's costing them any money!
        
         | shp0ngle wrote:
         | The linked article says this
         | 
         | > Long story short, there are legal rules and regulations
         | allowing a company like WBD to write down costs incurred as
         | part of a post-merger restructuring -- but only for a short
         | amount of time. Taking shows such as Minx or Westworld out of
         | the HBO Max and, more importantly, WBD library will apparently
         | help the megacorporation make its future balance sheets look a
         | lot better. This isn't just about saving a few thousand dollars
         | on residual checks or licensing costs; it's about writing down
         | millions in amortization costs these titles would have incurred
         | in coming years.
         | 
         | It still doesn't make sense to me. What do they write down?
         | They already paid for those shows! Several decades ago, in some
         | cases. Can someone that understand accounting more explain?
        
           | Jasper_ wrote:
           | Residuals and royalties are still ongoing payments.
        
           | IG_Semmelweiss wrote:
           | They are basically doing a clean up of their balance sheet.
           | 
           | Those old WB shows still had value. So they were an asset in
           | the balance sheet. Long lived assets /intangible assets
           | usually have a long life, something like 40 years, and the
           | clock would have started from the moment that remastered show
           | was created.
           | 
           | These costs would have been hitting the income line as
           | amorrization costs for many many years. Making their EPS look
           | worse than it should.
           | 
           | Still, I question the logic, because you can write down an
           | impaired asset without actually retiring it from service.
           | Some beancounter somewhere had the bright idea to write down
           | the asset to improve the balance sheet and P&L... But that
           | should not mean you pull the shows out of circulation,
           | andbecause they are barely driving any traffic, they have a
           | solid accountinh argument for saying that their economic
           | value is zero.
           | 
           | If a car has fully amortized but it still works, you probably
           | dont stop driving it!
        
           | AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
           | The efficiency of capitalism at its finest.
        
           | vanderZwan wrote:
           | Is this related to the Batgirl situation, where they shelved
           | a practically finished movie for accounting reasons?
        
       | species9606 wrote:
       | Not to worry, HBO Max has replaced all that with "Velma."
        
         | richwater wrote:
         | I was actually jaw-dropped at how terrible the first episode
         | was.
         | 
         | HBO is normally known for high-quality content (even if I don't
         | like it, it's not for me).
        
           | HideousKojima wrote:
           | [flagged]
        
             | zeppelin101 wrote:
             | [flagged]
        
               | pictur wrote:
               | [flagged]
        
               | djur wrote:
               | I have yet to encounter a single person defending the
               | show on these grounds, and I know or follow a lot of
               | progressive/feminist/queer/etc. type people.
        
               | bitwize wrote:
               | Some of the critics are, but far fewer than normal for
               | this kind of thing, I think Mindy Kaling overplayed her
               | hand.
        
               | goldenchrome wrote:
               | Have you met anyone defending the show?
        
               | micromacrofoot wrote:
               | I think this is a case where both takes are wrong, it's a
               | bad show, but not because of how they make fred a
               | stereotype
        
           | rhino369 wrote:
           | HBO Max isn't HBO--it's HBO plus other Warner bros stuff.
           | Velma was made by the non-HBO side.
        
             | lotsofpulp wrote:
             | There has not been an HBO side for a few years now. ATT
             | fired the HBO executives that made HBO HBO when ATT bought
             | it.
        
         | anderber wrote:
         | Velma, I believe, is a holdover from the previous regime. The
         | current one is more likely to replace it with some sort of
         | trashy reality TV.
        
           | cptnapalm wrote:
           | Which would likely be a massive step up from Velma.
        
         | willis936 wrote:
         | I have a hard time shaking the feeling that this was
         | unironically the pitch for the show.
        
         | Eleison23 wrote:
         | [dead]
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | cm2187 wrote:
         | I had never heard of it, but with an imdb rating of 1.7 for 10k
         | votes [1], it makes it to the top 20 worst shows/movies (with
         | over 10k votes) in history.
         | 
         | The worst movie in that category seems to be a biography of
         | Erdogan [2].
         | 
         | [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14153790/
         | 
         | [2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5988370/
        
           | optimalsolver wrote:
           | That has to be the result of a coordinated down-voting
           | campaign.
        
           | thewebcount wrote:
           | I haven't watched it yet, but it's been out for less than a
           | week, so I suspect that rating may change going forward. (Or
           | maybe it really is awful? Feels like brigading to me,
           | though.)
        
             | nervousvarun wrote:
             | It's a Scooby-Doo property...without Scooby-Doo (think the
             | explanation for that is it's meant to be a "Velma origin
             | story").
             | 
             | This is the kindof remake/re-imagining that gets made
             | ostensibly for a different audience...but in the process
             | alienates the traditional audience...which makes it end up
             | with no audience.
             | 
             | Mindy Kaling was a big part of the success of the American
             | Office and has other successes in a relatively short
             | career, so it's not hard to see why it was green-lit...but
             | frankly it's rating is probably about what it should
             | expected to be.
        
             | AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
             | From what I've heard, it is unlikely to go up much.
             | Absolute mess of a show that seems to go out of its way to
             | insult any audience likely to watch it and who's only
             | redeeming feature is that when the animators are trying
             | they're doing a really good job.
        
             | cm2187 wrote:
             | In my experience, after 1000 votes, the rating has
             | converged to its final value.
        
             | poulpy123 wrote:
             | For what I've seen it is a show is actually about the
             | author as the main character and used only tScooby-Doo as a
             | theme to be sold
        
         | anthomtb wrote:
         | I am getting a ton of adverts for "Velma" when watching
         | YouTube. My YouTube habit is exclusively mountain biking,
         | woodworking and home improvement. I am not sure how targeted
         | YouTube's advertising is but have come up with three theories:
         | 
         | 1) Data sharing with Netflix (I do love Big Mouth)
         | 
         | 2) Using the content I watch as a correlation for my age, and
         | therefore susceptibility to Scooby-Doo nostalgia.
         | 
         | 3) Wide net, no targeting. YouTube is just blasting these ads
         | to everyone.
         | 
         | Nothing in the advertisements has piqued my interest in the
         | show either. It looks uninspired.
        
         | germinalphrase wrote:
         | I have no take on Velma, but "Be Cool, Scooby Doo" is perhaps
         | the best of all the more recent iterations of the show. Good
         | writing.
        
       | Spooky23 wrote:
       | None of this stuff makes any sense to me. New kids are born every
       | day. My 9 year old watched Tom & Jerry for the first time a few
       | months ago and loved it. It's an evergreen market.
       | 
       | I cannot fathom how these companies aren't making money showing
       | cartoons that were made 60 years ago. Everyone's dead who made
       | them, presumably they own the rights. If they don't want them on
       | their platforms, put them on YouTube and promote them.
        
         | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
         | More and more of these are getting censored. Save them while
         | you can. The Black maid in many of the Tom & Jerry cartoons is
         | going to be a reason to cancel these. Funny, we don't cancel
         | books from the 19th century (eg Tom Sawyer), but we cancel
         | cartoons from mid-20th.
        
           | themadturk wrote:
           | Isn't it also because those books from the 19th century are
           | in the public domain, so it's unlikely (I won't say
           | "impossible") for them to be canceled because no one controls
           | them. The films from the 40s and 50s still belong to someone.
        
             | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
             | I hadn't thought of that. But they can still be "canceled"
             | by libraries and schools choosing to exclude them.
        
           | marcos100 wrote:
           | Crazy parents don't read books.
        
           | Jtsummers wrote:
           | You might be able to make a better case that "we don't cancel
           | books from the 19th century" if you'd used something other
           | than Tom Sawyer as an example, which has been banned/censored
           | at various times in the US.
        
             | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
             | True. But in 2022, no one bans books like Tom Sawyer et.
             | al. even though they are inarguably more offensive to
             | minorities than Tom & Jerry. Such books are considered art
             | and in the American Parthenon of literature. Perhaps in 50
             | more years, Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes will reach similar
             | artful status.
        
       | Lammy wrote:
       | Search "Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies HQ Project v2022" and
       | then fire up your favorite BitTorrent client :)
        
         | chiph wrote:
         | It's v2020:                   Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies
         | HQ Project v2020
        
           | Lammy wrote:
           | That's an older version, yeah. There's also a v2021.
        
         | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
         | I searched 1337x and TPB. I see something like this but without
         | "project v2022" and the torrent is from 2015. It's 159.5 GB.
         | How do in find the more recent one you mention?
         | 
         | EDIT: I found a link to it on Reddit r/looney tunes pointing to
         | bt4g.org. 411.93 GB so much larger than the 2015 version.
         | Comments say it has and more and more blu-ray and restored
         | content over older versions.
        
           | Lammy wrote:
           | Even the old version will be a fine watching experience if
           | you don't want to burn that much HDD space.
        
       | jurassic wrote:
       | Every time this happens I get angry. Whatever accounting rules
       | are causing this to happen need to be changed pronto.
        
       | CSMastermind wrote:
       | Most looney tunes content seems to still be available through
       | Boomerang at least in the United States:
       | https://watch.boomerang.com/
        
         | jghn wrote:
         | I found their app to be terrible and wound up cancelling. Then
         | I found the HBO Max content. Alas.
         | 
         | In a recent reddit thread on this topic someone pointed out
         | that archive.org has a bunch of old episodes for easy download:
         | https://archive.org/details/20200303_20200303_0324
        
       | gjsman-1000 wrote:
       | There are over 500 episodes that Warner released on disc at some
       | point... _and over 500 they have not_ that probably haven't been
       | seen in... forever.
        
       | blacklion wrote:
       | One more link to show to friends, who ask me, why I'm not using
       | streaming platforms for music and buy all my music in
       | downloadable or material format (or, yes, pirate it if buying in
       | such formats is impossible). And own huge NAS. And pay hefty
       | price (more than typical streaming subscription) for (encrypted)
       | cloud backup.
        
       | tptacek wrote:
       | _Warner Bros. takes its goods to market on publicly maintained
       | roads, sells its sitcoms and movies to networks that broadcast on
       | public airwaves, and distributes its movies to theaters and homes
       | through fiber-optic cables that run over and under public land.
       | The company is bound up in our shared history, and it has
       | produced a great deal of art that is essential to that history._
       | 
       | This argument suggests that anything _you_ do partially belongs
       | to the author, as well; airwaves aside, all of us are enabled in
       | some way by public investments.
        
         | replygirl wrote:
         | yes, most things should be for the commons. it's unfortunate
         | that we have so few reliable ways to monetize creative output
         | that don't involve fabricated scarcity
        
           | tptacek wrote:
           | I think it has something to do with creators needing to,
           | like, eat and protect themselves from the rain.
        
             | mopsi wrote:
             | Dead people are not known for their appetite, yet copyright
             | lasts 70 years after death.
             | 
             | It's particularly egregious when copyright to some of the
             | most popular works of all time is inherited by people who
             | had nothing to do with the author in his/her lifetime or
             | had not even been born then:
             | 
             | > _The composer died unmarried and childless in 1937. His
             | heir was his brother Edouard, who died in 1960, leaving the
             | rights to his former masseuse, Jeanne Taverne, who died
             | four years later. A tangled legal battle in following years
             | saw the rights divided between a number of claimants,
             | including Ms Taverne's husband's second wife Georgette._ --
             | https://archive.ph/NOLb7
        
               | tptacek wrote:
               | I've never been able to understand how this is even a
               | colorable argument, and yet it comes up all the time.
               | Yes: the term of copyright lasts long after the death of
               | the artist. But it's that term that gives value to the
               | work in the first place; it's what enables artists to
               | sell their work to distributors.
        
               | mopsi wrote:
               | It doesn't, because nobody knows what works have
               | commercial value 70+ years into the future and thus
               | current business is not conducted on that basis. That's
               | how many popular works end up in random hands in the
               | first place, like in the case of Ravel - they aren't seen
               | as particularly valuable at the time, but become sleeper
               | hits when they earn a special nostalgia or new
               | technologies emerge (television, internet, etc).
               | 
               | Good luck selling a movie to Warner Bros on the premise
               | that it'll be a real money-maker in 2090s on telekinesis-
               | vision platform.
        
               | tptacek wrote:
               | This argument requires me to believe that Warner Bros
               | would see no difference in value between a property that
               | becomes public the moment the author dies and a property
               | that has 70 years of exclusivity after that point.
               | Obviously, the difference in value between those two
               | properties is immense, and that value is realized _during
               | the author 's lifetime_.
        
               | mopsi wrote:
               | Only the first few years after publication matter,
               | because that's when virtually all of lifetime revenue is
               | earned. Revenue earned beyond that is usually not enough
               | to even justify proper preservation, leaving huge
               | archives to rot away.
        
               | benj111 wrote:
               | Do you buy anything based on what it may be worth 70
               | years after your death? Do you think any company thinks
               | that long term?
               | 
               | 1 year probably. 5 years pushing it. 10 years is
               | basically off any reasonable financial projection any
               | company is going to make.
        
               | tptacek wrote:
               | Yes, clearly they all do. Media companies don't push for
               | extended copyright terms just to spite you. They have
               | easier ways of spiting you than that.
        
         | djur wrote:
         | I think the stronger argument here is that Warner Bros. has
         | profited from a legal regime that prohibits unlicensed
         | distribution of their work. It's not unreasonable to suggest
         | that they have some kind of reciprocal responsibility to the
         | commons.
        
           | radicaldreamer wrote:
           | The way to really enforce this is to reduce the copyright
           | protection period from essentially forever (thanks to Disney)
           | to being more like patents, ~20 years.
        
             | benj111 wrote:
             | Why even 20 though?
             | 
             | Over what period of time do new works make most of their
             | money? Over what period are production companies their
             | payback over when deciding whether to invest in new works?
             | 
             | I would suggest 5 years more than covers the above.
             | 
             | To me the point of copyright, and the only way you can
             | defend a state sponsored monopoly is to encourage creation
             | of new works. If 5 years does that, any more just prevents
             | derivative works, which are new creations in their own
             | right.
             | 
             | I'll grant that perpetual copyright is at least logically
             | sound, but once you move away from that I don't see how you
             | can make an argument for anything more than a minimal
             | (enough to encourage creation) copyright term.
        
             | tptacek wrote:
             | That's less than half the copyright term we had before
             | Disney even existed.
        
               | benj111 wrote:
               | And....?
        
               | tptacek wrote:
               | And at the very least you can factor Disney out of your
               | argument if you think copyright terms should be less than
               | half of what they were in 1909.
        
               | Jochim wrote:
               | 20 years is still roughly a third of someone's working
               | life. I'm not sure what the argument is for longer, even
               | 20 years seems too long personally.
        
               | tptacek wrote:
               | Again with this lifespan stuff. The term of copyright
               | determines much of the value of the work, the very moment
               | is put on the market by the author. The extra value
               | realized by a term of 70 years versus 56 (the 1909
               | number) is, in significant part, realized _during the
               | author 's lifetime_. It gives them something more
               | valuable to sell.
               | 
               | There are other reasons to argue the term should be
               | shorter, or that creators should be granted a less
               | valuable right for their works. But "the current term
               | doesn't track the lifespan of the author well" seems
               | facially nonsensical. I mean, just to start with, there's
               | the difference between John le Carre, whose last book
               | (before he died) was published when he was 88 years old,
               | and someone like Christopher Paolini, the Guiness record
               | holder as youngest author of a bestseller. How does
               | lifespan even make sense here?
        
               | amanaplanacanal wrote:
               | Sounds good to me!
        
         | sarchertech wrote:
         | If you release what you create out into the world, that's
         | already the way it works. Copyright gives you a monopoly for a
         | while (a long while currently), but ultimately ownership is
         | passed onto the public.
        
         | LeifCarrotson wrote:
         | Do you disagree?
         | 
         | I was educated at a public school, went to college on tuition
         | funded by scholarships, where I learned things written in
         | public libraries by people studying with public funds, now I
         | commute physically on public roads and digital cables...
         | 
         | Anything I accomplish is tied up in our shared history. To say
         | that the unique things I built are attributable to me and me
         | alone is to ignore that someone else with the same knowledge
         | and the same problems would likely come up with the same
         | ingenious solutions.
        
           | seti0Cha wrote:
           | I agree with the essential point that no one exists in
           | isolation, we all build on the work of others, but I don't
           | see how your last sentence follows from the previous
           | statements. We can all have the same background, but that
           | doesn't make us all the same. There's strong evidence, for
           | example, that genes play a large role in how we behave.
        
             | amanaplanacanal wrote:
             | > There's strong evidence, for example, that genes play a
             | large role in how we behave.
             | 
             | I've heard this said before. Can you link to some science
             | about this please?
        
               | StanislavPetrov wrote:
               | https://www.livescience.com/47288-twin-study-importance-
               | of-g...
        
           | seneca wrote:
           | I disagree quite strongly. It's an inherently collectivist
           | point of view. It enslaves the individual and post-hoc
           | justifies the theft of their property with terms that they
           | never agreed to and which were imposed on them as a child.
           | 
           | Being born in the same country as you does not entitle you to
           | my property and work.
        
             | sobkas wrote:
             | > I disagree quite strongly. It's an inherently
             | collectivist point of view. It enslaves the individual and
             | post-hoc justifies the theft of their property with terms
             | that they never agreed to and which were imposed on them as
             | a child.
             | 
             | Nothing stops you from seceding or overthrowing government
             | if you don't like it. But because what you want won't fly
             | with the rest of society, peaceful options are not
             | feasible.
             | 
             | > Being born in the same country as you does not entitle
             | you to my property and work.
             | 
             | Of course you use collectivist idea that every individual
             | can continue to own things while unable to defend them and
             | themselves from potential new owners. Such idea is enforced
             | by majority through government (it's not perfect especially
             | in USA), it's collectivist idea. In natural state, people
             | will fight for resources and take them from eachother. But
             | such constant warfare also waste a lot of resources. So
             | people compromised.
        
             | benj111 wrote:
             | So you don't use public roads as an adult? Or expect public
             | courts to uphold your (copy)rights?
             | 
             | I don't necessarily agree with the GP, but I don't think
             | you can reject the argument out of hand because you don't
             | like the answer.
             | 
             | The GP has provided an argument as to why they are entitled
             | to your copyrighted work. You haven't provided an argument
             | in response.
        
             | mjdiloreto wrote:
             | Who is John Galt?
        
             | Jochim wrote:
             | > Being born in the same country as you does not entitle
             | you to my property and work.
             | 
             | In that case you wouldn't be entitled to any of society's
             | collective work either. Electricity? Sorry you didn't
             | invent it. Fire? Not your intellectual property either, no
             | heat for you. Have you reimbursed anyone for your use of a
             | language you didn't create lately? After all, it's immoral
             | to benefit from someone else's work.
             | 
             | Libertarians have this strange lack of awareness of the
             | fact that the world we live in is built on millennia of
             | other people's work, without which they'd be foraging naked
             | in the mud with sticks.
             | 
             | > It enslaves the individual and post-hoc justifies the
             | theft of their property with terms that they never agreed
             | to and which were imposed on them as a child.
             | 
             | Leave then. You're no longer a child, it's in your power to
             | simply start walking. What's stopping you? Perhaps the
             | "collectivist" society is actually quite comfortable?
             | Perhaps life outside of one isn't all it's cracked up to
             | be.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | googlryas wrote:
           | You can attribute your success to that, but that doesn't mean
           | anyone gets ownership over a thing.
        
           | andromeduck wrote:
           | Public school wasn't a choice.
        
             | edgyquant wrote:
             | Further not everyone learns so much from it. I learned to
             | read before attending public school and was mostly meh at
             | it. I learned math in spite of it (my math teachers would
             | be schockedto learn I use it daily.)
             | 
             | That said the internet is where I learned most things and
             | it exists thanks to the DOD and ISPs have a lot of
             | subsidies to thank for their existence (at least the ones
             | in the rural area I grew up in)
        
           | 8note wrote:
           | How much ownership though? 50%? 1%? 0.05%?
        
             | tptacek wrote:
             | I don't want to nerd out on this too much and, like, come
             | up with a Dungeons and Dragons rulebook-style answer to
             | this problem, but we could do something like: if you make
             | up to, like, $10,275, we could ask for 10% of that, and
             | then if you make up to $41,775, we could ask for 12% of
             | that extra money, and then up to, I don't know, $89,075, we
             | could take ownership of maybe 22% of it, and if you're
             | making a cool $170,050, 24%.
             | 
             | I know this seems a little fantastical and engineering-
             | brain-y but it also means we don't have to spend much time
             | thinking about how much of Obi-Wan Kenobi the state of
             | Oklahoma owns; we can just settle the whole obligation back
             | to society in dollars. I don't know, seems simple to me.
        
           | auctoritas wrote:
           | I agree it is tied up in our shared history. I hope you take
           | that fact as reason enough to share your work in a reasonably
           | accessible manner. But I cannot compel you to do so, at least
           | not in most circumstances, exceptions being inevitable of
           | course.
        
       | jdkee wrote:
       | Cultural erasure.
        
       | babyshake wrote:
       | Whatever happened to the supposed future where information wanted
       | to be free, and we would have these video libraries of the future
       | that would contain virtually infinite selection? It did seem for
       | a few years at least that we were headed in that direction.
       | 
       | It would be interesting if there was a Popcorn Time style app
       | that only streamed content older than 20-30 years and required
       | you to do oAuth login for paid services that support independent
       | artists. It might not be any less illegal, but it might seem
       | reasonable to a lot of people that wouldn't support a less
       | targeted form of piracy.
        
         | JakeAl wrote:
         | The pirates will always be free, and control freaks who can't
         | control their own feelings will always impose their will on the
         | rest of the world in the name of decorum, or civility or
         | whatever word they want to attach to their elitism so they can
         | see themselves as "better" even when it is less sophisticated
         | and nuanced (ham-fisted).
        
       | rhino369 wrote:
       | They will probably resurface somewhere. While HBOmax was shelving
       | some content for good for tax write offs--this is probably about
       | selling rights to the highest bidder.
        
         | techsupporter wrote:
         | I've read a couple of commentators speculating that the
         | cartoons will go to one of those "free ad-supported streaming
         | television" (FAST) platforms like Tubi or Pluto. The ad model
         | is supposedly more profitable for stuff where people will put
         | it on and let it run for hours.
        
       | DanAtC wrote:
       | magnet:?xt=urn:btih:2606A5830780074B089FAB96904009DA412C1C3D&dn=C
       | omplete%20Looney%20Tunes%20Golden%20Collection%20%5BDVDrip%5D
        
         | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
         | This one has the complete 1000 episode collection as well as
         | movies and specials. Magnet link when you click "Open". It's
         | got about a dozen seeders and I'm getting about 8 MB/sec
         | download rate:
         | 
         | https://downloadtorrentfile.com/hash/0d0a5a005906babfbfa6a30...
         | Tunes and Merrie Melodies HQ Project v2022
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | mortenjorck wrote:
       | _> There are vile ethnic caricatures and slurs in those patriotic
       | cartoons from the Second World War, and to its immense credit,
       | Warner Bros. has often worked to contextualize and preserve those
       | shorts. In several cases, it has included those works in separate
       | subsections on home-video releases, so that they won't autoplay
       | with the rest of the cartoons._
       | 
       | If only more shared this view that we should thoughtfully and
       | critically engage with problematic elements of classic works
       | rather than summarily banishing them.
        
         | ksniwmidjd wrote:
         | [dead]
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | Do you have a list of these classic, summarily-banished works?
         | In a world where _Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever_ is available on
         | mainstream streaming services, it 's hard to imagine what
         | atrocities you're thinking of.
        
           | swarnie wrote:
           | Songs of the south
           | 
           | Any Tom and Jerry episode involving Mammy Two Shoes
           | 
           | A few WW2 era animations, Hitler-Donald duck springs to mind.
        
             | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
             | "Song of the South" is a full-length Disney film and the
             | first to mix live action with animation. One might think
             | with that historic meaning, it would be preserved.
             | 
             | But it's impossible to find. Even eBay has banned sale of
             | the DVD.
             | 
             | Fortunately I have a copy my father ripped to DVD from some
             | unknown source sometime in the 90s. It's poor quality.
        
               | gjsman-1000 wrote:
               | If you look into it, Disney (because, well... money, not
               | any actual guilt) actually sold VHS tapes from the 90s to
               | the early 00s in many countries except the US. Many
               | "bootleg" copies originate from them.
               | 
               | You can find the VHS on eBay for ~$40-$50 from the UK.
        
               | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
               | Interesting. I guess VHS is the low-quality source of my
               | DVD rip.
        
               | gjsman-1000 wrote:
               | Another thing you can look into, here's the secret words:
               | _Cancion del sur_.
               | 
               | The film went public domain in Spain. And surprise,
               | there's some boutique resellers in Spain who do DVDs and
               | Blu-rays... and add language tracks...
               | 
               | https://www.amazon.com/Song-South-Blu-Ray-Reg-
               | Spain/dp/B09BD...
        
               | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
               | Also " The Princess and the Frog " and " Mary Poppins "
               | (1964)
        
           | parker_mountain wrote:
           | They worst of them are referred to as the Censored Eleven,
           | although you can easily find them intact (albeit, with a
           | warning). It's not a complete list - others have been added
           | to the list since, such as WWII cartoons with highly racist
           | anti-Japanese charactures.
           | 
           | An example of one illustrates why the content might be
           | considered problematic: "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs". A
           | contemporary review said, "A satire on Snow White done in
           | blackface, set in modern swing, this is the best in a long
           | time. It's very funny."
           | 
           | The "atrocities" include rampant racism, sexism, and other
           | needless offenses with the intent of comedy. Other media of
           | the time, such as Theodore Geisel/Dr Suess' wartime cartoons,
           | often show up on these lists as well.
           | 
           | In my opinion, it's good that these cartoons are accessible,
           | with content warnings, yet kept out of normal playback
           | rotation. They're relics of an age gone, thankfully, past.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | gjsman-1000 wrote:
           | Even on all known re-releases, we know that some _Tom and
           | Jerry_ episodes have been altered. And 2 episodes, even in
           | their  "complete set," are completely absent.
        
           | RichardCA wrote:
           | Here's a good example. I rememeber seeing this back in the
           | 90's when they would have weekend "mini-Cons" in L.A. at
           | places like the Ambassador Hotel for animation and Anime
           | fans. They had to project it on 16mm film.
           | 
           | https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6q8qen
           | 
           | The "Scat" version of Nagasaki was provided by Leo "Zoot"
           | Watson: https://looneytunes.fandom.com/wiki/Leo_Watson
        
       | rado wrote:
       | The only reason I subscribed was the "Paw Patrol" series. They
       | removed them, so I unsubscribed. Streaming is weird.
        
       | n3storm wrote:
       | There is a torrent of emotions coming to my mind. Call me a mule
       | but I'm still think those are some of the best entertaining
       | cartoons ever.
        
         | n3storm wrote:
         | * I still think...
        
           | DennisP wrote:
           | You can edit typos if you don't wait too long. You'll see a
           | little edit link over your comment.
        
       | bsilvereagle wrote:
       | If you're interested in purchasing the shorts that have been
       | released on physical home media (nearly half of episodes have not
       | been) I made this outline of the differences between the various
       | sets and recommended purchasing order:
       | https://frdmtoplay.com/maximizing-bugs-bunny/
        
         | Finnucane wrote:
         | Bought the Golden Collection during its original release. In
         | retrospect it seems to have been a worthwhile purchase.
        
         | WalterBright wrote:
         | Thank you. Ordered some of them!
        
         | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
         | Incredible work. THANK YOU! Anyone who has spent more than a
         | few minutes trying to share a specific Bugs episode with a son,
         | daughter, niece, nephew, or even grandchild... knows how
         | infuriating it can be.
         | 
         | "I wanna Easta egg! I wanna Easta egg!"
        
       | chiph wrote:
       | Schoolhouse Rock is probably next to vanish.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgVKvqTItto
        
       | WalterBright wrote:
       | > LOCKSS, for Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe
       | 
       | I've opined here many times that a lot of stuff is not digitized
       | because it is too expensive to do a professional job, so just use
       | your phone camera to take a snap of each page. (I've done this,
       | it works great.)
       | 
       | That's about 15 seconds a page, and requires no expertise and no
       | equipment other than a phone.
       | 
       | I'm always surprised at the horrified reaction people have to
       | this. In my not-so-humble-opinion, a less than perfect photo is
       | far superior to the museum burned it all up in a fire. Like the
       | Hewlett Packard museum.
        
         | falcolas wrote:
         | To set expectations, I'm a proponent of copyright.
         | 
         | Making a copy for yourself via a camera is fine IMO (and by the
         | law). Distributing it while still under copyright is not.
         | Distributing it after copyright expires (or even once it's no
         | longer available for purchase), again perfectly fine.
        
         | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
         | I'm surprised the article didn't mention the 2008 Universal
         | Studios fire, instead deciding to mention much older fires:
         | 
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Universal_Studios_fire
         | 
         | It was mostly audio masters that were lost, but also some
         | video.
         | 
         | List of what was burned is in the Wikipedia page. I can almost
         | guarantee you'll recognize some of the names.
        
       | vjulian wrote:
       | I find the article content infuriating and thus only skimmed. I
       | don't know if copyright is a factor somewhere here, but to me
       | personally it is irrelevant. I shall look for a complete
       | collection online with the best possible restoration / transfer.
       | Surely someone has compiled such a set. I appreciate the archive
       | link shared here in another comment.
        
         | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
         | Here's a link to an active torrent magnet that has the complete
         | Looney Tunes collection. Click "open" for the magnet link:
         | 
         | https://downloadtorrentfile.com/hash/0d0a5a005906babfbfa6a30...
         | Tunes and Merrie Melodies HQ Project v2022
        
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