7 Tales of Bureaucracy
deal had not brought the government any revenue and it had come at a substantial cost of public access.
We had our point as far as Congress was concerned, but when I went home I kept looking at those 1,800 videos and wondered if there was some way to liberate them without forking over $18,000 to Amazon. I was musing about this on Twitter and somebody at-replied back and asked if I had considered an Amazon wish list—the way you let other people buy stuff for you for your Bar Mitzvah, birthday, baby shower, or wedding?
Whoa, I thought, what a nice hack!
So, 153 of the most impressive titles went on an Amazon Wish List and Boing Boing issued a new post suggesting that if people had an extra $10.95, perhaps they could buy a Christmas gift for the public domain? (Tax deductible, no less!)
That list sold out in a matter of days, and the day before Christmas, my Amazon sent to me, 43 boxes of DVDs. I spent the holidays ripping the discs, finding metadata, and uploading files.
It was great. Footage of the Hindenburg blowing up, James Cagney narrating a cold war film called "the Wall," the Cambodian Royal Ballet, old CIA propaganda films, Disney war films, early space footage, and the Roswell Area 51 investigation.
When you criticize a government agency to their congressional oversight committee, you're probably going to get a response. So here is rule 6 for radicals, which is when you get the microphone, make sure you make your point clearly and succinctly.
