Sita hates DRM Ravanas
By Techgirl

American Nina Paley is a self taught animator whose brilliant work has won rave reviews from a number of media houses including BBC and New York Times.

Ironically, her best known animation work ‘Sita Sings the Blues’ has its roots in her 2002 trip to Kerala, India where she read our sacred scripture The Ramayana.  Nina had moved to Kerala to be with her American husband who had taken up an assignment at Trivandrum.  The couple broke up and when she returned to USA she realized (in her words): “The Ramayana took on new depth and meaning for me. It no longer resembled a sexist parable; rather, it seemed to capture the essence of painful relationships, and describe a blueprint of human suffering. My grief and longing for the man who rejected me increasingly resembled Sita's; my husband's withdrawal reminded me of Rama. In Manhattan I heard the music of Annette Hanshaw for the first time. A radio star of the late 1920's, Hanshaw specialized in heartfelt blues and torch songs. In my grief-addled state, her songs, my story, and the Ramayana merged into one: Sita Sings the Blues”

I quite liked the spirit of the cartoon flick ‘Sita Sings the Blues’. Not surprisingly, Nina’s blog was attacked by what she labels ‘Hindutvadi’ trolls.  And the battle with such Hindu fanatics taught her detachment.  

Nina also spent months trying to get copyright for songs which has been in the public domain for 80 years. The music companies wanted Nina to pay $220,000 for the songs in her cartoon, but she negotiated them down to $50,000.  This is when the original musicians and artists had died many years ago but their work is controlled by huge companies who prefer moolah to the joy of music.  

In mid-2009, Nina Paley made her movie free when she wrote on her website: “I hereby give Sita Sings the Blues to you. Like all culture, it belongs to you already, but I am making it explicit with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License. Please distribute, copy, share, archive, and show Sita Sings the Blues. From the shared culture it came, and back into the shared culture it goes.”

In 2010, American DVD Rental Company Netflix which also offers net streaming services contacted Nina Paley to buy ‘Sita Sings the Blues’ for their customers, she was pleased.  Netflix offered to pay $4,600 for a 12 month licence.

Only catch?  Netflix wanted DRM or Digital Rights Management which would prevent their viewers from freely using the downloaded Sita Sings the Blues.  When Nina asked Netflix that she wanted her movie to be DRM Free, they refused.

Nina walked away from the money and Netflix’s large membership base because she felt that such Copyright restrictions were against the spirit of the movie.

Nina blogged on April 24, 2010 on why she turned down the money and tens of thousands of new viewers on grounds of principle.

Nina’s courage of standing up to powerful companies in the interests of her viewers has won her many admirers.  Sita and our other Gods would be proud of such artists.   

Techgoss note: Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com