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Lost Doctor Who episodes found – but owner is reluctant to hand them to BBC
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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So unless I missed something, I didn’t see any place where the BBC went after the collectors for illegal recording. This sounds like they’re scared of something that hasn’t happened and, at least in this case the BBC is very happy to have found a copy.
Even if I wasn't arrested, I wouldn't want any of my collection seized.
I mean that was 1978 when the policy of junking was still active and the BBC were more actively dickish in their bureaucracy. These days because that policy has been so roundly condemned as being short sighted and destructive to their own legacy I doubt they'd be so bullish.
Now I'd expect them to be more actively dickish in their attempt to get 'marketable product' or whatever the jargon is however. And if I was a collector I'd know that I was in a very grey area legally so I'd still be extremely cautious.
I can't say I'm completely sympathetic to the collectors either though, in that they know they're sitting on something literally millions of people would love to see and they don't want to share it just because it's theirs.
The article also says these tend to be people who lived it. You see that 1978 thing as an historical anomaly, but they lived it. These were people who were repeatedly threatened to lose their jobs and be arrested for salvaging such things
That's a very fair point