An interesting take on piracy by Salik Shah of Nepal, which cites his appreciation of Orson Welles:

Piracy is typically portrayed as the vice of only those who wish to steal media for the sake of self-indulgent entertainment. But 'file sharing' is also, for some, the only means of gaining access to educational material or information censored by oppressive governments, let alone revolutionary inspiration.

"... When I heard (Orson) Welles’ interview, which was broadcast on the BBC fourteen years before I was even born, I identified with it immediately. With great patience, I had downloaded the interview from a file-sharing website. The Orson Welles Sketchbook, produced by the BBC in 1955, and his 1982 interview with Leslie Megahey for Arena (last repeated in 1995 on BBC2) are a treasure trove for any film historian or enthusiast. I wasn’t there when these interviews took place and certainly wasn’t there when Welles was struggling to make his films, but now I have access to his films, his interviews, and his books. I could study him continually at home and in various cities, dividing my time between my day job and watching his work, and all because a serious community of cinephiles taped those broadcasts and shared them with people like me. Think about it: if it were not for torrent trackers and numerous file-sharing hosts, the way our world is, 99% of the film audience would have little or no access to what remains available of the genius of Orson Welles. Without them, we would have to give in to the 1% of the ‘film’ people at the top who control the distribution of these films.
The internet has played a crucial role in my life and countless others of my generation all over the world."

Read the full article at http://www.opendemocracy.net/salik-shah/cinema-citizenship-and-promise-of-internet-personal-view-from-third-world

Salik Shah's article suggests the great diversity of learning which may spread around the World by way of computers, electronic devices, and the popular arts. He singles out a number of artists who have influenced him, one of the most prominent being Orson Welles. The limitation of access and utilization of the internet is a thorny issue. Intellectual and Artistic properties must be protected, but certainly some compromise should be reached whereby billions of people worldwide may take advantage of the learning and culture so easily conveyed by computer.

Thanks for posting this piece, Ray.

Glenn