Smithsonian's Deal with Showtime

What must be one of the largest repositories of artifacts and information about American history and prehistory is the Smithsonian Institution, or SI. Founded in the 19th century by a bequest to the US government, the SI includes nine research laboratories and 19 different museums dedicated to everything from natural history to the space race, and it holds 136 million artifacts, works of art, specimens, and documents, images and film relating to American history and science. All of this is supported by income from the substantial trust, supplemented by the American taxpayer.

As you may have heard, last month SI announced a formal association with CBS/Showtime, to create some 40 hours of new educational programs each year based on SI's vast collections and to be marketed on cable television as "Smithsonian on Demand" (SOD). According to the press release, the proposed documentaries, events, and short subjects will include features on "programs on space, science and nature, history, popular culture, art and design, sports, and music."

An Exciting Opportunity, for Some

The deal is considered by SI an exciting opportunity to see that their artifact, document, and image collections are used to produce many many new educational documentaries. In return, Showtime will gain preferential access to the Smithsonian's collections and curators. In addition, SI will obtain a badly needed source of income in these rocky financial times. Scholarly access to the materials and researchers on staff at SI will not change, and news and public affairs requests will continue to be acceded to. However, independent film makers will have newly restricted access: ".. [I]f the program proposed [by an independent producer] is substantially about the Institution or incorporates more than an incidental amount of our content, it will then go through a process during which the Institution will determine whether to proceed. It may be that we want to hire that producer to make the video with SOD; it may be that the producer does the show outside of SOD; or we may decline to participate" (quote from Smithsonian Members Relations Specialist Jennifer Barton, cited in a recent blog on Boing Boing)

As you might guess, some of the independent film producers (including Ken Burns, producer of recent PBS documentaries on Lewis and Clark and Jazz) are up in arms, since they rely on the Smithsonian collections to survive.

Limited Access for Others

Many discussions have appeared on various blogs in the last couple of days, and on Friday, Boing Boing reader Rich Gombert sent along a letter he had written to the Smithsonian and the Smithsonian's responses to his concerns. Also included in Boing Boing's posting is a response to the response by the senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Fred Von Lohmann, and Los Angeles entertainment attorney Joshua Wattles, both of whom have grave concerns over the highly touted association.

• Press Release | Showtime Networks and The Smithsonian Institution Announce a Joint Venture to Create a New On Demand Service
• Boing Boing | Smithsonian's deal with Showtime: attorney point/counterpoint. Copy of Rich Gombert's letter, response from the Smithsonian, and response to that reponse by Fred von Lohmann and Joshua Wattles
• EFF | Smithsonian-Showtime: Why the Broadcasting Treaty Matters, the EFF's first post on the issue and how the issue fits into the World Intellectual Property Organization's proposed treaty, dated 4/6/06
• DC Arts Jobs | Smithsonian Film Deal Stirs Controversy,
• Media Law Blog | FOIA invoked by Carl Malamud of the Center for American Progress. Although the Smithsonian says it is not going to discuss the terms of the contract with Showtime, as a federal agency, it may be answerable to the Freedom of Information Act.
• If:Book | Jesse Wilbur on corporate creep discusses the ramifications of a subject-specific ban on independent film makers
• Smithsonian deal with Showtime draws fire, Eric Bangeman on arstechnica
• New York Times | Smithsonian-Showtime TV Deal Raises Concerns, Edward Wyatt
• Washington Post | Smithsonian Deal With Showtime Restricts Access By Filmmakers, Jacqueline Trescott

Bottom Line

To be sure, there is subtantial potential for the Smithsonian On Demand deal to create many more quality educational programs based on the Smithsonian collections, and the Smithsonian will make money from the deal, offsetting recent financial shortfalls. But it seems likely that in the process, access to curators and collections will be preferentially given to Showtime producers, and access to SI collections and staff for similar projects by producers from Public Television and the Discovery and History Channels, among many others, will be restricted. Since the SI is a Federal entity with the responsibility to provide tax-payer-paid access to all comers, this controversy is sure to hang around for quite a while.