April 17, 2006
The
Honorable Lawrence M. Small
ecretary
of the Smithsonian Institution
100
Jefferson Drive, SW
Washington,
D.C. 20560
Dear Secretary Small:
We are writing to express our deep concern over the recent announcement of the creation of Smithsonian Networks, a joint venture between the Institution's Smithsonian Business Ventures Unit and Showtime Networks.
According to Jeanny Kim, Vice President for Media Services at Smithsonian Business Ventures, filmmakers and researchers who wish to have "more than incidental" access to Smithsonian archives or Smithsonian curators or scientists would have to offer their project to this new business venture. This policy will discourage independent filmmakers from creating projects for other media outlets. Indeed, this policy will also discourage an independent filmmaker from making a documentary and releasing it on the Internet on a noncommercial basis.
We have several concerns about this new venture. First and foremost, the Smithsonian Institution has refused to disclose the details of this agreement. In a letter to members of the Smithsonian Institution, a spokesperson states: "This is a business contract that does not involve federal funds. Such contracts are confidential as they contain proprietary information that no company should have to share publicly."
The Smithsonian Institution is not merely a business venture. It is a publicly chartered guardian of our national heritage, created by the U.S. Congress "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." In your FY2005 Annual Report, you noted that the Institution receives 75% of its revenue from federal appropriations, government grants, and government contracts. The Institution is governed by a Board of Regents appointed from all three branches of our government. The Smithsonian Institution is a public trust in the truest sense of the term.
The Institution, as a public trust, operates as custodian of our shared heritage. As Secretary Joseph Henry stated in his first annual report in 1847 in considering the role of the Institution in formally accepting the bequest of James Smithson: "The bequest is for the benefit of mankind. The Government of the United States is merely a trustee."
Because the arrangement with Showtime Networks has raised grave concerns among the public, we believe it is imperative that the Institution disclose all the details of this contract. The Smithsonian Institution, by subscribing to the "intent and spirit" of the Freedom of Information Act, should keep in mind that the aim of the law is "a general policy of full agency disclosure." The purpose of that law, as so eloquently stated by Justice Thurgood Marshall is to "ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed." Disclosure of the terms of the contract that establishes Smithsonian Networks goes to the very heart of the "intent and spirit" of the Freedom of Information Act.
While disclosure of the terms of this contract is our first concern, our broader concern is the troubling principle established by the venture of a "right of first refusal." The prospect of potentially requiring that an independent filmmaker, a video blogger on the Internet, a historian, or educator who makes "non-incidental" use of the collections or needs access to staff first present their project for commercial exploitation by this new business venture is an anticompetitive practice that is extremely troubling.
Recent years have witnessed an explosion in the creation of documentary films. Many award-winning films have drawn on our collective heritage as maintained in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution. Closing off one of the most important collections of source materials and limiting access to staff will have a chilling effect on creativity, will create disincentives for digitization of the collections for access by all Americans, and violates the mission and purpose of the Smithsonian Institution.
We ask that you take three actions today:
Disclose the terms of the contract with Showtime Networks and any other commercial agreements that limit access or use of the collections.
Annul the contract with Showtime Networks, as it was awarded without public comment and without a competitive procurement process.
Hold hearings to gather comment from a broad cross section of the public before undertaking any further actions that limit access to the collections for which the Smithsonian acts as guardian or limit access to the talented and highly capable staff of the Institution.
Sincerely yours,
Carl Malamud
Senior Fellow/CTO
Center for American Progress
Vinton G. Cerf
Internet Pioneer
Gloria Tristani
President
Benton Foundation
Anna Deavere Smith
Actress, Writer, Teacher
New York University
Ken Burns
Filmmaker
Graeme Revell
Film Composer
Rick and Megan Prelinger
Prelinger Archives and Prelinger Library
Lawrence Lessig
Professor of Law
Stanford University
Prudence S. Adler
Associate Executive Director
Association of Research Libraries
Jacoba Atlas
Senior Vice President - Programming
PBS
Gigi B. Sohn
President
Public Knowledge
Alex Gibney
Director/Screenwriter/Producer
George C. Stoney
Goddard Professor of Cinema
Tisch School of the Arts at NYU
David J. Farber
Distinguished Career Professor
Carnegie Mellon University
Margaret Drain
Vice President, National Programming
WGBH
Alexander B. Magoun, Ph.D.
Executive Director
David Sarnoff Library
Mitchell Kapor
President and Chair
Open Source Applications Foundation
Tim O'Reilly
Founder and CEO
O'Reilly & Associates
Patricia Mitchell
President and CEO
Museum of Television and Radio
John F. Wilson
Co-Chief Programming Executive
PBS
Susan W. Lacy
Executive Producer, American Masters
WNET, New York
Paul Vixie
Internet Pioneer
Pamela Samuelson
Distinguished Professor of Law
University of California at Berkeley
Shelley Bookspan, Ph.D.
President
LifeStory Productions, Inc.
Gary Saretzky
President
Princeton Preservation Group
Lee W. Formwalt
Executive Director
Organization of American Historians
Jeff Passe
President
National Council for the Social Studies
Michael Moore
Filmmaker
Shira Lee Katz
Doctoral Student
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Laurie Kahn-Leavitt
Documentary Filmmaker
Filmmakers Collaborative
Douglas Newcomb, CAE
Chief Policy Officer
Special Libraries Association
David C. Feingold
Assistant General Manager - Content
Nebraska Educational Telecommunications
Cory Doctorow
Novelist/Blogger/EFF Fellow/Fulbright Chair
Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy
University of Southern California
Patricia Aufderheide
Professor and Director
Center for Social Media
School of Communication
American University
Howard Weinberg
President
The New York Film/Video Council
Lorie Conway
Producer/Writer
Boston Film and Video Productions
Peter Jaszi
Professor of Law
Washington College of Law
American University
Kirby Dick
Documentary Filmmaker
2005 Academy Award\'a8 Nominee
Siarkei Krasikau
Producer
Daniel Blake Smith
Professor of History
University of Kentucky
Phoenix Films, Inc.
Roy Rosenzweig
Professor of History
George Mason University
Anna K. Nelson
Distinguished Historian in Residence
American University
RJ Cutler
Filmmaker
Maria Agui Carter
Writer/Director
Iguana Films
Julie Corley
Filmmaker
LifeStory Productions, Inc.
Nancy F. Cott
Trumbull Professor of American History
Harvard University
Margit E. McGuire
Professor/Past President of NCSS
Seattle University
Julie Zammarchi
Independent Filmmaker
Tom Devine
Legal Director
Government Accountability Project
Jennifer M. Urban
Director, Intellectual Property Clinic
USC Gould School of Law
Michal Goldman
Filmmaker and President
Filmmakers Collaborative
Jeffrey Chester
Executive Director
Center for Digital Democracy
Sandra J. Ruch
Executive Director
International Documentary Association
Jonathan Lawson
Executive Director
Reclaim the Media
Dan Gillmor
Director
Center for Citizen Media
Thomas J. Simon
President
Fair Wind Pictures, Inc.
Robin Hessman
Filmmaker
Red Square Productions
Jonathan Rintels
Executive Director
Center for Creative Voices in Media
Tamara E. Robinson
Vice President and Director of Programming
WNET
Francesca Prada
Producer, Director, Writer
Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman
Snitow-Kaufman Productions
Barbara Attie
Attie and Goldwater Productions
Charlene Gilbert
Associate Professor of Film and Media Arts
American University
Diane Estelle Vicari
President
International Documentary Association
Kent Gibson
Executive Director
Non Fiction Exchange (NFX)
Catherine Herrera
Filmmaker
James B. Young
J.B. Young Photography
Gerald Jones
Filmmaker
Lisa Simmons
Film Producer
Joyce Appelby
Past President, American Historical Assc.
Professor of History, Emerita
UCLA
St.Clair Bourne
Producer-Director
Chamba Mediaworks, Inc.
Joanna Rudnick and Gordon Quinn
Development Director and President
Kartemquin Films
Rebecca Tabasky
Outreach Organizer
Carnivalesque Films
Brian Newman
Executive Director
National Video Resources
Juan Mandelbaum
President
Geovision
Linda Harrar
Producer/Director/Writer
Linda Harrar Productions LLC
Melissa D. Bucklin
Senior Producer
Nebraska Public Television
Michael Benefiel
Advisor
Persuasive Information
Tom Cappello
Crazy Legs Productions
Debra Zimmerman
Executive Director
Women Make Movies
Jill Godmilow
Professor, Filmmaker
Department of Film, Television & Theatre
University of Notre Dame
Erica Ginsberg
Co-Founder, Docs in Progress
President, CineCitizen Media
Ed and Mary Ann Southern
Historian and Librarian
Malkia K. Lydia
Independent Filmmaker
Kuyamba, Inc.
Frances Reid
Director
Iris Films
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
University Professor
Phillips Professor of Early American History
Harvard University
Johnny Symons
Independent Documentary Filmmaker
Kristine Samuelson
Professor
Director, Documentary Film & Video Program
Department of Communication
Stanford University
Nina Gilden Seavey
Director
The Documentary Center
George Washington University
Pamela Yates
President
Skylight Pictures, Inc.
Karen Thomas
Executive Producer
Film Odyssey, Inc.
Joseph Turow
Robert Lewis Shayon Professor
Associate Dean for Graduate Studies
Annenberg School for Communication
University of Pennsylvania
Betsy A. McLane, Ph.D.
Director Emerita
International Documentary Association
Alison Guss
True Aim Productions
Paula Manley
Chair, Board of Directors
Assoc. of Independent Video and Filmmakers
Max Alvarez
Film Historian, Lecturer, Curator
JoAnna Baldwin Mallory
Film Producer
Director, Office of New Ventures
Partners HealthCare
Joseph Finneran
Creative Director
Group Dynamics
Carl Byker
Series Producer, \'d2The Great War\'d3
Producer, \'d2The Duel\'d3 and \'d2Woodrow Wilson\'d3
Robert H. Johnson
Executive Director
New Mexico Foundation for Open Govt.
Joan Mandell
Director
Olive Branch Productions
Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider
PatchWorks Films
Megan Mylan
Documentary Filmmaker
Phylis Geller
President
Norman Star Media
Paul Atkins
Director of Photography
Moana Productions, Inc.
Celia Wexler
Vice President for Advocacy
Common Cause
Michael Ehrenzweig
Independent Film Producer
Deborah Hoffmann
Documentary Film Maker
Rick Tejada-Flores
Producer
Roger Weisberg
Producer/Director
Public Policy Productions
Joseph P. Shannon
Producer
Real Arts Media
Jessica Bricker
Producer
Robert Stone
Documentary Filmmaker
Robert Stone Productions
Janis Plotkin
Interim Executive Director
Film Arts Foundation
Nadia Tomisova
MA Candidate Film and Video
American University
Kenn Rabin
President
Fulcrum Media Service
Series Archivist, \'d2Eyes on the Prize\'d3
Jesse Boggs
Independent Producer
Former Producer and Host
Radio Smithsonian
Geoffrey A. Huth
Chair
Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference
Robert Gordon
Filmmaker
Anny Lowery Meza
Film Editor
Jay Rosenblatt
Filmmaker
Steve Mencher
Mensch Media
Barbara Abrash
Producer and Curator
Susan C. Ivers
Independent Media Specialist
Joan Widdifield
Producer/Director
Documentary Films
Maryam Arif
Researcher
CNN/ImageSource
Elizabeth Thompson
Producer/Director
Thompson Films
Lucie Faulknor
Producer
Serendipity Films, LLC
Joseph A. DeFrancesco
Documentary Filmmaker
Gene Aanenson
President
North Dakota Council for the Social Studies
Shirley K. Sneve
Director of Radio and Television
Native American Public Telecommunications
David Van Taylor
Vice President
Lumiere Productions, Inc.
Linda DiFeliciantonio
President
Naked Eye Productions, Ltd.
Richard S. Butler
President
High Road Media, Inc.
Mike Hazard
The Center for International Education
Janet Cole
Producer
Robert M. Goodman
Producer
Stone Reader
Steven H. York
Senior Producer
York Zimmerman Inc.
William Greaves
Filmmaker
William Greaves Productions
Muffie Meyer
President
Middlemarch Films, Inc.
P. Alexander Gibney
President
Jigsaw Educational Productions, Inc.
Dianne Cleare
Production Manager
Brian Fulford
Senior Licensing Agent
CNN/Imagesource
Wenonah Elms
Senior Research Associate
LECG
Julie S. Omelchuck
Founding Member
Oregon Alliance to Reform Media
Robert Hillmann
Cinergy Media LLC
Justine Shapiro
Promises Films
The Saul Zaentz Media Center
David e. Delk
Co-Chair
Alliance for Democracy - Portland Chapter
Ricki Green
Producer and Journalist
Ever Green Communications
Connie Wilkerson
Division of Film Studies
University of Utah
Sara Altherr
Former PBS Publicist for Documentaries
David Grubin
Producer, Director, Writer, Cinematographer
Kevin Henry
Filmmaker
Sharon Sachs
Editor
Kathryn Barnier
Documentary Filmmaker
David M. Schneider, MD
Faculty Physician
Family Practice Residency Program
Sutter Medical Center
Katy Chevigny
Arts Engine
Cornelius Moore
California Newsreel
Judy Chaikin
One Step Productions
James Campbell
Producer
Mateen Kemet
Director / Writer
Runaway filmworX
Sharon Wood
JAK Films
Karen Marek
Associate Director of Gift Planning
KQED, Inc.
Gene Thomas
Owner and President
Lifespan Video Portraits, Inc.
Rena C. Kosersky
Music Supervisor for Documentaries
Michael C. Donaldson
Advocate and Former President
International Documentary Association
Michelle Peticolas
Independent Documentary Producer
On the Edge Production
Carolina Loyola-Garcia
Assistant Professor
Media Arts Department
Robert Morris University
Richard Benjamin
Senior Fellow
Demos
Mimi Pickering
Appalshop
Lisa Gottlieb
Instructor
Columbia College Chicago
Amy Taubin
Contributing Editor
Film Comment Magazine
Megan Simpson
Director
Lucille Carra
Documentary Filmmaker
Travelfilm Company
Kara van Malssen
Audiovisual Archivist
James R. Adams
History Teacher
President
Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies
Matt McDevitt
Student
University of Iowa
Jim Hubbard
Filmmaker
Howard Besser
Professor and Director
Moving Image Archive and Preservation
NYU's Tisch School of the Arts
Dr. Robert Benedetti
Producer, Writer, Educator
Stephanie Black
Producer/Director
Joan M. Mathys
MJM Picture and Film Research
Sheridan Tatsuno
Board Member
Cinemar
William H. Gilcher
Independent Producer
Jeffrey Friedman
Producer-Director
Telling Pictures
Nate George
University of Iowa
Sasha Waters Freyer
Assistant Professor
University of Iowa
Faye Douglas Johnson
Interim Director
Cinemar
Paul Arthur
Professor of English and Film Studies
Montclair State University
Jim McSilver
Producer/Editor
Chris Housh
Director/Producer
Repressed Society Productions
Lawrence Daressa
California Newsreel
Cable Hardin
Assistant Director
Media Arts and Animation
The Art Institute of Washington
Linda Blackaby
Director of Programming
San Francisco International Film Festival
June Cross
Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University
Lewis Erskine
Film Editor
Abra Bigham
Writer and Filmmaker
Terry Lamb
Director
Videosyncracy Productions
Ron Merk
Filmmaker
John P. King
Independent Producer
Vice President Development
Story House Productions
Scott Sanders
Chicago Media Action
Jessie Warner
Attorney
Mark H. Dorfman
Environmental Scientist
Jennifer Jenkins
Director
Center for the Study of the Public Domain
Duke University Law School
Ryan Pfleger
Independent Documentary Filmmaker
Linda Srivastava
Assoc. of Independent Video & Filmmakers
Kembrew McLeod
Associate Professor
Department of Communication Studies
University of Iowa
Abigail Porter
Exhibit Developer
Jeff Martin
Archivist/Documentary Filmmaker
Heather Carawan
Filmmaker
Christopher Klemek, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of History
George Washington History
Amanda Benchley
Producer
J. Mark Wynns
Media Consultant
Veronica Selver
Documentary Editor, Producer, Director
Jenny Toomey
Executive Director
Future of Music Coalition
Ray Schmitt
Real Earth Productions
John H. Terry
Dean of Fine Arts
Rhode Island School of Design
Chana Gzit
Producer
Steward/Gazit Productions
James Rapp
Producer/Director
Creative Paradigm Productions
Michael Gorman
President
American Library Association
Alfred Hillman and Michal Brand Carr
President and Vice President
Hillmann & Carr, Inc.
Gerardine Wurzburg
President
State of the Art, Inc.
Judy Richardson
Senior Producer
Northern Light Productions
Anthony Radanovich
Rural Media Arts and Education Project
Tom Weidlinger
Moira Productions
Kathryn Dietz and Sue Williams
Producer and Producer/Director
Ambrica Productions
Kate Geis
Producer
Helen De Michiel and Jack Walsh
Co-Directors
National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
Alfred Hillmann and Michal B. Carr
President and Vice President
Hillmann & Carr, Inc.
Laurel Kendall
Curator
Anthropology Department
American Museum of Natural History
Lorraine Hess
Director of Program Acquisitions
LinkTV