Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press
By Adam Dewitz on April 23rd, 2008
RIT Professor Emeritus Michael L. Kleper sent a note on a documentary video from the BBC that chronicles the invention of the Gutenberg Press.
Michael writes:
A wonderful documentary video from the BBC. Stephen Fry travels to France and Germany on the trail of Johannes Gutenberg, and sets about reconstructing a replica of Gutenburg’s first press. This is a must-see program. Owing to contractural restrictions, it’s not available outside of the UK; however, I see that it’s available on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91smRXrEPRs
The video is available in 6 parts on YouTube, but it can also be found as a single file on BitTorrent.
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5 Responses to “Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press”
By Laurens on Apr 24, 2008 | Reply
I can’t understand why an RIT professor recommends to watch an unauthorized recording on YouTube or download an illegal copy using Bittorrent. What’s next: steal books from the library or ‘borrow’ magazines from a newsstand? Got any URL’s where we can steal stuff from RIT?
By Adam Dewitz on Apr 24, 2008 | Reply
An RIT professor did not advocate that it be downloaded from Bittorrent. I noted that it’s widely available on that network and pointed it out. The BBC is a public corporation in the UK – it’s hard to argue that viewing “unauthorized recordings” goes against their charter. The BBC itself streams the video from its website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/medieval/gutenberg.shtml (But as Michael points out, its only available within the UK’s IP block).
I see a number of people ‘borrow’ magazines from the newsstand every time I go to Borders or Barne & Noble. I’m sure a magazine publisher would be happy to see someone flipping through one of their titles — the advertising works the same for purchased or ‘borrowed’ magazines.
A great chunk of the intellectual property produced at RIT is available from the RIT Digital Media Library (http://ritdml.rit.edu) in the form of monographs, articles, working papers, preprints, technical reports, conference papers and data sets.
By sharp on Apr 25, 2008 | Reply
A main problem for me is that YouTube doesn’t have subtitling or closed captioning for the hearing impaired. And this show can’t be bought outside the UK. So how fair is this for us hearing impaired people who RELY on the written word?
By Adam Dewitz on Apr 25, 2008 | Reply
Sharp: you point a downfall of online video I have not thought of before: Accessibility for the hearing impaired.
Crowdsourced closed captioning would be a great feature for YouTube as it appears the tv networks and movie studios have no desire to do it (at least until they’re forced to by law).
By sharp on Apr 25, 2008 | Reply
What is crowdsourced closed captioning?