Archives Reaches Deal With Amazon to Sell Film Holdings On-Line
On July 30, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced that it had reached a non-exclusive agreement with CustomFlix Labs, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., to make thousands of historic films from the Archives’ holdings available for purchase on Amazon.com. CustomFlix DVD on Demand service will initially make the National Archives’ collection of Universal Newsreels, dating from 1920 to 1967, available on DVD. A limited number of titles are already available on Amazon.com.
In an article in the Washington Post, National Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper emphasized that the deal between the Archives and CustomFlix was non-exclusive. Last year the Smithsonian Institution was sharply criticized for entering into a semi-exclusive deal with the Showtime Networks, Inc. that limited access to the Smithsonian’s holdings for filmmakers. No details were released concerning the financial arrangements made between the Archives and CustomFlix....
Read entire article at Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
In an article in the Washington Post, National Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper emphasized that the deal between the Archives and CustomFlix was non-exclusive. Last year the Smithsonian Institution was sharply criticized for entering into a semi-exclusive deal with the Showtime Networks, Inc. that limited access to the Smithsonian’s holdings for filmmakers. No details were released concerning the financial arrangements made between the Archives and CustomFlix....