Mr. SILVERSTEIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There has been a direct communication to this committee through us by a number of world-class, non-American directors, again, to underline the impact that your decision will have on the international film making community. It contains communications both by Telefax, Telegram and letter from David Lean, Federico Felini, Carol Rice, John Boorman, Lindsey Anderson, Harold Pinter, and Bertram Tavernier, president of the French Society of Film Directors, and I would submit this packet also for the committee's review. [The information follows:] N.W. WASHINGTON DC 22035 (USA) I GIVE MY FULL AND CONVINCED SUPPORT TO THE INITIATIVE OF ANY KIND BY OTHERS. BEST WISHES Like all European film directors, I am strongly behind you in your fight to establish and strengthen rights of authorship for film makers in the United States. I am sure you will present the case for the directors' moral rights with eloquence and conviction. But there is another side to this issue: the question of the public's rights. The vast majority of the audience sees movies of the past (and increasingly of the present) on television. For them, the T.V.version is the film. It is the public that needs protection from being offered mutilated versions of creative work. The only practical way to provide this protection is the kind of legislation that you are adherence to the Berne Copyright Treaty advocating: and the introduction of a strong mandatory moral rights clause. All power to your elbow! Yours sincerely, Kaerkein KAREL REISZ |