Open Access in Order to Make a Midnight Movie

Political Theater is the insightful and funny local podcast that explores connections between pop culture and real-world politics, and they're coming to Open Access Week for a LIVE EPISODE recording. Join your hosts, film critic Martin R. Schneider (Front Row Central) and political essayist Marta Rusek (WHYY Newsworks), for a lesson in the legal quirks and loopholes that have helped create some of the best "so bad it's good" works of cult cinema in history. We'll talk about how transformative fair use allowed the Mystery Science Theater franchise to survive, how Italian copyright laws let one cowboy movie spawn dozens of "sequels", and the bizarre IP battle over one of the worst films of all time - Manos, The Hands of Fate. Plus, an interview with Penn Law alum Frank Taney (Principal Attorney, Taney Legal) about IP law and the entertainment industry! This event is brought to you by the Penn Libraries and Penn IP Group (PIPG).