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Help TalkOrigins bid for rights to "Expelled"

MattusMaximus

Intellectual Gladiator
MattusMaximus
Joined
Jan 26, 2006
Messages
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From Panda's Thumb, folks. Pass the word...

As most of you already know, the production company Premise Media went bankrupt. Their execrable propaganda film, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”, is on the auction block. The online auction is proceeding now, and will end on Tuesday, June 28th.

The auction promises that besides all available rights and interests in the finished film itself (there is an existing distribution contract), the winner will get all the production materials and rights to them. Want to know what was in the rest of the interviews with Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers? I know I would like to have that material archived and made available to the public, among other things that Premise Media found inconvenient to include in their film.

There was talk among individuals on “After the Bar Closes” about the auction. Kristine Harley pointed out that, depending on exactly what is in the production materials, there may well be “Wedge Document 2” in there somewhere. When the “academic freedom” label on religious antievolution goes to court, it could be very handy to have those materials on hand.

But any one individual is unlikely to have the wherewithal to make the winning bid on this.

Today, the TalkOrigins Archive Foundation approved a resolution to use our funds on hand to put in a bid on “Expelled”. We hope to make many of the materials freely available and to collaborate with other groups seeking to produce rebuttals to claims made in “Expelled”. To that end, we would like your help. Our final bid amount will be determined by funds on hand and what has come in via our PayPal donation button by Monday, June 27th. This is because there are delays in transfers between PayPal and the bank, and (hopefully!) we’ll need to pay out of our bank account.

Ken Fair, our secretary and treasurer, wrote a detailed discussion of donations and bidding. The short of it is that while we hope to bid and win the auction, we don’t know what the bid prices will be come the 28th, and cannot guarantee that we will win the auction, especially since it has an unknown reserve price on it. We cannot refund donations, so even in the case of us making the winning bid, donations that take us beyond that amount would remain part of the TOAF funding. On the other hand, contributions to the TOAF are tax-deductible for USA residents and will be used in accordance with the TOAF’s mission.

I hope that by providing a single point at which we can pool our resources, we’ll have a better chance to put in the winning bid on “Expelled”. Even if we don’t manage to make the winning bid, every bit that we can do to raise our bid helps in that the other side will have to take even more money out of their current projects in order to beat the bid.
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NICE! I wish them infinite success. I can't imagine what would shake out, if they get their hands on the materials.
 
I did a search. They are the only people who are conducting an Internet appeal for funds for this reason. Not sure who else would want the movie. Maybe some religious organisation?
 
So the copy I bought at the kwikee-mart I work at is a collectors item?
 
Just curious--who gets the money from the auction? Is it just paying off some of Premise Media's creditors, or would it pay salaries or golden parachutes to anyone involved in Expelled?
 
JoeTheJuggler said:
Just curious--who gets the money from the auction? Is it just paying off some of Premise Media's creditors, or would it pay salaries or golden parachutes to anyone involved in Expelled?
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Premise Media declared bankruptcy. The money will go to their outstanding creditors.
 
Two thousand dollars does not seem to be very much money. There is a reserve on this item and I don't think their bid will meet that. But who knows. We will find out in a couple of days.
 
And what benefit is there for TalkOrigins to own the rights to Expelled? Would they wish to quash it so it can't be sold or shown to anyone else? Or would they keep it available that it might be analyzed and critiqued?

I guess I just don't get it.

ETA: Guess it would've helped if I'd read the link in the OP. It seems the primary reason is that the auction includes all the production materials (including, possibly, the rest of the interviews of Dawkins and Meyers, and possibly a new "wedge" document).
 
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BillC said:
Premise Media declared bankruptcy. The money will go to their outstanding creditors.
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I understand that, but who are those creditors? And all bankruptcy decisions aren't identical. Sometimes there are conditions made that the assets can be used for other purposes.
 
Subduction Zone said:
Two thousand dollars does not seem to be very much money. There is a reserve on this item and I don't think their bid will meet that. But who knows. We will find out in a couple of days.
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How much is the movie worth? It has done its run in the movies and been shown on TV and been on the "new release" section of the video stores. Once it has done that it would not be able to earn much money.

It probably did not make much money doing all of the above, but that is beside the point.

Everyone is assuming that there is something besides the movie. They might have thrown away the parts of the interviews that never made it to the movie. The sellers have not specified what exactly is for sale.
 
I was confused by it as well. As far as I can tell, there is one item there that has received (at the time I'm writing this) three bids.

If I understand correctly, Talk Origins have not placed a bid yet: they are waiting to see how much they raise from the fund drive before doing so. I may be wrong on this point, though.

I have given them some money, and hope others do so too. This appeals to my sense of humour if nothing else.
 
Update on Panda's Thumb site:

Update: Professor Richard Dawkins has chipped in to help the TalkOrigins Archive Foundation “Win Ben Stein’s Movie”. If you haven’t taken a moment to visit the Foundation’s donation page and chip in your own stake, remember that our bid amount tomorrow (Tuesday) will be based on what can be cleared through the system into our bank account today (Monday).
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Current bid is at $24,750.00.
 
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Can someone explain what the significance of winning the rights to this movie is?
 
keale said:
Can someone explain what the significance of winning the rights to this movie is?
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It's already been posted.

The rights include rights to the production materials. It may include a second wedge document (the next strategy from creationists).
 
It also presumably means films like Talk Origins can make debunking films - even films for profit if you wanted - using the material and not have to worry about copyright infrigement of their videos being taken down on youtube.
 
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