Internet: a new tool
In Italy, Hungary and France. there is a widespread
infatuation with the internet. K. Wackers-Espinosa
was astonished by the explosion of sites created by
playwrights in Italy "who have forfeited all control
and are not concerned with issues of authors' rights"
because it is a means of making oneself known all
around the world. A similar observation was made by
F. Villaume, who couldn't help remarking the French
playwrights' fascination with this medium: "when
someone in China requests a play, they want us to
send it immediately". And while individual initiatives
seem very risky - due to plagiarism and theft - they
can however be organised and reformulated.
Hungary has already begun to take this new mode of
communication into account. The Literature Institute
financed by the Ministry of Culture "has created
an academy for Hungarian writers where entire works
have been put on line", explained A. Lakos. Translations
and those holding the rights in several languages
were carefully catalogued before putting the plays
on line. "Playwrights who accept having their works
put on the internet are paid a monthly sum by the
government to compensate them in the form of royalties."
As for the Theatre Institute, it has "a wealth
of archives on Hungarian playwrights, and is digitalising
everything in its collection except for the plays:
the playwrights' histories in English and Hungarian,
a synopsis of productions, casts, where and by whom
they were performed, who represents the playwrights
in each country, and when authorised by the playwrights,
an excerpt". This approach is mirrored by É. Lansman,
who advocated resorting to the internet "not for
distributing plays, but for promoting them and educating
people" putting excerpts on line can create a
demand without excluding the publisher nor "sacrificing
his essential role in the play's maturation process,
in the relationship of trust and work he has with
the playwright". In Germany, K. H. Braun is considering
putting the Verlag der Autoren general catalogue on
line, which would be very useful "in particular
for the (highly decentralised) world of amateur theatre
and in theatre schools". Finally, information
portals are arousing interest, following the example
of the one created by the German section of the ITI,
which offers professionals safe access to filtered
information.
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