The artistic collective MSCHF is once again causing problems on the Internet. For his latest project, ASCII Theater, the group will broadcast a new popular movie daily in ASCII format that anyone can watch for free. Fair paste the command on your Mac or PC terminal, and you can watch movies like Barbie exactly as, well, virtually no one intended.
ASCII art movies are nothing new and date back to the early days of the Internet. They are created by converting a movie, frame by frame, into lines of text characters. Instead of pixels, you'll see text. One of the most famous examples is the ASCII art version of the 1977 original. Star Wars film, which was completed by New Zealand-based programmer Simon Jansen in 1997 and is still available online. You can also find clips of ASCII movies as Matrix scattered all over YouTube.
But full ASCII movies are rare, and MSCHF's ASCII Theater promises to stream a new title every day. Following Barbiethe cinema will show an ASCII version of the 2018 horror film Hereditary. A look at the site trailer reveals ASCII versions of multiple popular movies, including Shrek, pulp fiction, the glow, The Lion King, Star Warsand others.
MSCHF marketing director Matt Steiner said The edge that the collective plans to keep the ASCII Theater alive “until they close it.” As for the legality of such an undertaking, Steiner himself seemed unsure: “Maybe? “I don't know?” Steiner admitted in an email when he was contacted by The edge earlier this month.
The legal obscurity surrounding the ASCII Theater is part of the appeal for MSCHF. The Internet collective has received cease and desist letters from several companies and has even been sued by companies such as vans and Nike for having also Great fun with copyright law.
“Copyright has always been conceptually productive for us. It is one of the legal gray areas with the greatest personal impact. It is also a place where people experience the subversion of restrictive systems in informal life,” Steiner wrote in an email Monday afternoon.
Productive or not, ASCII Theater is likely in violation of copyright law. “This latest project would appear to violate the copyright owner's right to derivative works, which gives the copyright owner the right to prevent unauthorized adaptations of a copyrighted work, such as a film.” Xiyin Tangassistant professor of law at UCLA, wrote to The edge.
But Tang isn't convinced the studios will bother to sue. The actual damage done to each film studio will be “minimal” as MSCHF does not charge viewers and only airs each film for 24 hours. There is also a (very small) chance that MSCHF could successfully argue that ASCII movies are considered fair use, according to Tang.
Under the Copyright Law, if the art collective loses in court, the copyright owner may be entitled to legal damages, a maximum of $150,000. “Given that the going rate to hire a company and file a lawsuit will likely exceed that amount, it is unclear what monetary benefit a studio will get from suing, especially given the limited length and exposure (24 hours) each film will have.” Tang pointed out.
