I am always interested in how to do stuff with Windows command line tools and BATCH scripts to make things easier and to automate processes that are related to the operating system itself or to the file system. I found some interesting tricks and tips in one of the recent issues of my favorite computer magazine from Germany called “CT Magazin” (CT stands for “Computer Technik”) by the publisher “Heise” (which I am still subscribed to here in the United States). I’d like to share those with you, but written in English language. I also included some additional tips and practical examples for using the tricks.
Infinite Loop
The obvious method to do an infinite loop within a BATCH script is the use of “LABELS” and a “GOTO” command within it that jumps to the same label address e.g.
1: :MYLABEL
2: … commands to execute here …
3:GOTO :MYLABEL
However, this code might ends up to be harder to read and it has the short-coming that it cannot be used from the command line directly and only from within a .BAT Batch script. But there is another way to create an infinite loop via BATCH commands.
1:for /L %i in (0,0,0) doSINGLE-COMMAND
or if you want to execute a list of commands within the loop:
1:for /L %i in (0,0,0) do (
2: … multiple commands here …
3: )
where you have to replace “SINGLE-COMMAND” with your own command call or “… multiple commands here …” with the list of multiple commands that you would like to process.
The “0,0,0” stands for “from = 0”, “to = 0”, “step = 0” and is usually used for finite FOR-loops (known as FOR-TO-NEXT Loops in Visual Basic) like “1,10,1” where “from = 1”, “to = 10” and “step = 1”, performing 10 loops and returning the values “1,2,3 … 10” in the Batch-Variable ”%1” for additional processing.
Delay / Wait for XX seconds
MS DOSBatch does not have an equivalent for commands like “Delay” or “Wait” in Visual Basic, VBScript or JavaScript, but there is a trick that you can use to emulate such a command, getting the same effect.
1: ping -n XX 127.0.0.1>NUL
where “XX” should be replaced with the number of seconds for the delay. The command line tool “PING” makes a pause between two ping requests. The number of ping requests can be specified via the “-n” option. By specifying the address “127.0.0.1” (or “localhost”), you only ping your local computer, which should work without any problems, regardless, if you are connected to the Internet or work offline. Since we don’t care about the actual results that are returned by the ping command, we redirect its output into the “Nirvana” (nothing) via the output-redirect command “>” to “NUL”.
Here is a practical example where you can use this track. This command shows a counter and a message in the window title that the application will complete in X seconds (and close the window, if you executed the script directly and not via command prompt):
1:FOR /l %%a in (10,-1,1) do (TITLE %title% -- closing in %%as&ping -n 2 -w 1 127.0.0.1>NUL)
2: TITLE Press any key to close the application&ECHO.
Combining the Two Tricks
The two tricks above can be combined within a single command line that can be called directly from the command-prompt or from within a .BAT Batch script.
1:for /L %i in (0,0,0) do @YOUR-COMMAND & ping -n XX 127.0.0.1>NUL
Replace “YOUR-COMMAND” with the command to execute and “XX” with the frequency of executing the command in seconds. The @ in front of the command call specifies that the command itself will not be displayed, but only its results.
Free Some Resources by Pausing Services Temporary
To free up some system resources and make them available for other resources hungry processes that you have to run on your computer you can pause some Services that are not needed at the moment. This can be done manually via the “Services” application within your “Administrative Tools” that come with the Windows Operating System, but it is also possible to do this via a command line command, which could be called for multiple Services at once in a single .BAT Batch script. A second .BAT Script could also be created to continue the paused services once you are done. By the way, services that you do not need at all can (and probably also should) be disabled permanently. But this article is not about computer performance optimization and tweaking. There are plenty of articles about that available on the Internet.
To pause a Service call:
1: sc pause SERVICENAME
and to continue the Service again:
1: sc continue SERVICENAME
You can use “sc query type= service|more” to see a list of all running services and to get the KEY NAME of them. This query returns a lot of other stuff too and it is not that easy to see quickly, what services are there.
You might want to check out the command line tool “XNET”, which was part of the KIXTART script package up to version 2001 4.23 (download ZIP, 541 KB). The usage is “XNET LIST” to get a nice and easy to read list of ALL “active” services (= excluding DISABLED), with the “short name”, “Description (as much as there is space)” and the current status of it, like “Running”, “Stopped” etc.
Note:You cannot use the SC command to enable or disable any devices that you don’t want/need to use at the moment, for example “Bluetooth'” the “Wireless Network Adapter” when you are connected via regular wired LAN adapter. However, Microsoft made a command-line tool available at their website for download that can be used for this purpose. The tool is called “devcon.exe”.
Bam, Bam, Bam. I just announced at the beginning of this month that the Superior Art Creations intros/cracktros/bbstros etc. are now accessible online via ordinary web browser. Now you can not only access the intros online, but the rest of the content of the SAC artpacks as well.
I talked at the end of last year about those efforts (see my blog posts here and here). I also put up a lot of content up elsewhere, like the converted ANSI and ASCII art on Flickr.com. That conversion by itself was already a bitch, but what I didn’t accomplish until now is to make all that stuff accessible directly from the Superior Art Creations web site.
Here is a little video introduction of mine.
You can watch this video in high definition (1280x768 pixels) at Vimeo.com
See for example the first SAC art package from December 1994. The pack files can be browsed now directly from the SAC Pack listings and overview page that I created over two years ago. I created also a new packs listings page that only shows the files, but then also information that are not shown on the general SAC Packs page. This includes the number of files by type, like how many ASCIIs, ANSIs or Intros were part of a pack etc.
The new packs files list is accessible here. From there you can also access very easily the content of two SAC music discs releases by Crome and Svenzzon and my Roy art packs that I released prior SAC.
Another listing that I created is for the artists who contributed to any of the SAC art packs between 1994 and 2007. The artists listing is available here. There it also shows the number of files by type that I made available online for viewing (or listening).
The special SAC intros pages that I created previously still remain, because they show extra information that are not available via the SAC pack browser pages, like additional credits for graphics and music, as well as the links to the intro resources like the used MOD music file or graphics.
I also made everything available for download at my file share at Mediafire.com. You can download all the web ready stuff there, including the Flash movies and the MP3 audio files. All in all over 2.6 2.3 GB!!! I was able to reduce the amount of data by over 300 MB through image optimization (especially the ANSI and ASCII snap-shots). That saves me bandwidth and you download time :)
This is an updated and extended version of the historic timeline of the events about and surrounding the Berlin Wall that separated a city and it’s people for over 28 years. I posted a timeline previously on July 29, 2009. This version has much more details and I also included a lot more images to illustrate the individual events within the historic timeline.
The timeline extends beyond the events of the actual erection of the Wall on August 13, 1961 and its fall on November 9, 1989, because I believe that it is important to know the events that eventually led to the building of such a horrible thing in the first place. Events actually started with the end of World War 2 in Europe and when Nazi Germany surrendered to the victorious allies.
BEFORE THE WALL
May 8th, 1945 – Germany signs its total capitulation and ends the World War 2 in the European theatre.
Picture: Raising of the Soviet flag on top of the Berlin Reichstag building by soldiers of the Red Army on May 2nd, 1945
Germany is broken up into 4 zones, each governed by one of the victorious Allies: the Soviet Union, the United States, Great Britain and France. Berlin gets a special status and is also broken up into 4 zones. The three sectors occupied by the U.S., Britain and France is called West Berlin or the “allied sectors” and the Soviet occupied sector is called East Berlin or simply “the zone”.
June 19th, 1948 - A new currency is introduced, but only in 3 of the 4 German sectors, the American, British and French occupied. The Soviets responded to this on June 23rd, 1948 with the blockade of West Berlin and an emergency changeover to a new currency for the soviet occupied sector. The blockade will last almost an entire year before it is lifted on May 11th, 1949.
September 9th, 1948 Ernst Reuter makes his famous speech where he appeals to the
“People of the World” … “Look at this City!”
May 23rd, 1949, West Germany or more correctly the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) is founded in the West Sectors (US/GB/FR), „Bonn“ becomes the temporary Capital, the „special status“ of Berlin remains. On October 7th, 1949 the second German state, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) is founded in the soviet occupied zone.
June 17th, 1953 Volksaufstand (People Unrest) in East Berlin. The uprising is triggered by an increase in Quota for Workers by the government, but fuelled by a general unhappiness with the situation in the Eastern part of Germany
June 15th, 1961 - International Press-Conference in East-Berlin A journalist from the West German newspaper "Frankfurter Rundschau" asked the question, if the creation of a "Free East Berlin" means that a border will be erected at the Brandenburg Gate.
The East German Head of State "Walter Ulbricht" responded to this question with the following...
“I understand your question like that there are people in West Germany who wish that we mobilize the construction workers of the capital of the GDR to erect a wall, yes?
I am not aware of such intention, but that the construction workers of the capital are mainly busy with the construction of homes and that the available man power is used entirely
Nobody has the intention to build a wall.”
July, 1961, 30.415 refugees moved to West Berlin, the largest number since 1953. The border between West and East Germany was already shut close and every attempt to cross it a deadly risk. The border between West and East Berlin was the only opening left for people to escape; East Germany was bleeding out, because the people who fled were mostly the young and skilled workers, which had catastrophic consequences for the East German economy.
THE WALL IS BEING ERRECTED
August 13th, 1961 0:00AM local time, launch of operation “Rose”. East German Army (NVA), Standing/Militarized Police Force (Bereitschaftspolizei), Paramilitary Combat Troops (Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse) severed 12 City Train and Subway connections between East and West Berlin, by 1:05AM Brandenburg Gate was blocked and by 6:00AM 193 Main and Side Streets between West and East Berlin were cut off/blocked.
Nowhere becomes the tragedy more clear than at Bernauer Strasse where the houses on one side belong to East Berlin, but the street including the curb to West Berlin.
East German could simply climb out of their Windows to flee to the west, but that was made harder quickly when East Germany started to wall up the windows, starting at the lower floors first forcing people to take much greater risks by escaping through windows in the upper floors.
This is also the reason for the Wall to claim its first victim there.
…
August 22nd, 1961, the 58 years old Ida Siekmann died as a result of her injuries caused by her jump out of the window at Bernauer Stasse.
October 27th, 1961 5:00PM, 10 Tanks on each side, the American and Russian faced off at the Berlin Wall for 18 hours, getting the world at the brink of World War 3. The Incident was caused because an American diplomat was forced by East German border guards to show papers, which was against his immunity status.
August, 1962 Brick Wall 7 ½ Miles, 91.7 Miles Fences, 130 Watchtowers
August 17th, 1962, the 18-years old bricklayer Peter Fechter was shot by East German border guards when he attempted to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin. He bleeds to death, lying in the death strip near the border crossing “Checkpoint Charlie” after crying for help for over 1 hour, in front of West Berlin Police and allied forces who were unable to help him.
1965 The brick wall is being replaced by concrete Wall
1966 Wall length 25 KM (15.5 mi), 210 Watchtowers
Between 1975 and 1980 the final and most sophisticated version of the wall was build, which was made up of 12ft high and 4ft wide reinforced concrete segments. The top of those segments was lined with smooth pipe, made of concrete as well to make it harder to climb. This new concrete wall made up 66mi of the 96mi border around West Berlin. 27mi of it was the border between East and West Berlin, with 23mi of it through residential areas. It got also 302 watch towers and 20 bunkers to make this border even more impregnable. Additional technical details: Electrified Fence: 107,5 KM (66.8 mi), Anti-Tank Trenches: 105,5 KM (65.5 mi), Metal Grating (special fence): 66,5 KM (41.3 mi)
February 5th, 1989, the Wall claimed its last victim. The 20 years old Chris Gueffroy was shot at the Wall while he and his friend attempted to cross the border to West Berlin.
May 2nd, 1989 Communist Hungary begins to dismantle the 150mi (240 km)of barbed-wire fence along its border with capitalist neighbor Austria.
August 8th, 1989 Hundreds of East Germans take refuge in West German diplomatic facilities in East Berlin, Prague, and Budapest.
August 19th, 1989 Hungarian border guards unlock a frontier gate at a joint Hungarian-Austrian friendship picnic organized by Hungarian opposition groups and Austria's “Pan-Europa Union”, allowing hundreds of East Germans to flee into Austria (illegally).
September 11th, 1989, Hungary legalized travel over the border to Austria for GDR (East German) citizens heading for the FRG (West Germany).
October 1st, 1989, West German Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher announces to the 3,500 East German refugees (including 800 children) in the West German Embassy in Prague that they are permitted to leave to West Germany. More than 800 East Germans who camped at the West German Embassy in Warsaw were also permitted to leave. More than 30,000 East Germans had fled by then via the Hungarian-Austrian border already.
October 4th, 1989 East Germany allows the refugees in the West German embassy in Prague to leave to West Germany via special trains driving across East Germany (implying that those refugees are being expelled from East Germany, which makes them legal immigrants and exempts them from criminal prosecutions in absentia for violating an East German law that prohibits “escape from the republic.'') Riots occurred in the East German cities where the special trains passed through.
October 7th, 1989. East Germany celebrates its 40th anniversary with a big parade and the soviet prime-minister Michael Gorbachev as a special guest. The Palace of the Republic where the leaders celebrated later that evening is completely surrounded and cut off by police. Outside in the streets people were demonstrating against the system. Riots erupted.
November 4th, 1989, the largest single demonstration against the regime took place in East Berlin. At least 500,000 people gathered in the center of the City to protest.
November 9th, 1989 6:00PM At the end of an international press conference in East Berlin, East German Politbüro member Günther Schabowski fished out a handwritten note that was handed to him 30 minutes before the conference and announced a new travel law in front of the astonished international press , quote:
“.... and therefore we have made the decision today, to institute a regulation, which permits every resident of East Germany to depart the country through any border crossing of the GDR ....”
Some members of the press asked “When?”, “From Now?” Schabowski responded:
“This becomes active... to my knowledge... It’s now ...immediately.”
Berliners from East and West could not believe their ears when they heard about this announcement in the evening news and flocked to the border to find out if this is really true. When they arrived at the border, they found the border crossings shut as usual. People were upset and talked to the border guards, referring to what Schabowski had said on national television, meanwhile people from West Berlin started climbing the Wall platform at Brandenburg Gate from the western side, which was unique and only available there.
Note: Mr. Schabowski made an error. East Germans were not supposed to be able to cross the borders to West Berlin and West Germany immediately. They were required to get a travel visa at a local police or registration office first, which were to be issued to any East German who asks for it without any restriction starting on November 10th, 1989. The issued visa would not be valid before the next day or November 11th, 1989.
People felt betrayed and some even tor their passports or IDs to pieces in protest. Eventually the guards were allowed to let the loudest of the “trouble makers” pass and stamped their IDs in a special way to be able to identify them later and deny access back to East Berlin, if they should decide to return. Most of them did of course, which heated the situation even further.
November 9th, 1989 11:30PM local time, PKE-Oberstleutnant Harald Jäger (PKE = Passkontrolleinheit), officer in charge at the border crossing between Berlin Prenzlauer Berg and Wedding, at Bornholmer Strasse disobeys a direct order of his superior officer Oberst Sieghorn and ceases passport check operations. The pike fell.
The impregnable bulwark of East Germany against the capitalist west lost its power over night without a single shot being fired “to defend it”. This is a remarkable fact that should not be forgotten.
The Berlin Wall lasted 10,860 days.
THE WALL FELL
October 3rd, 1990, East and West Germany are re-united (4 days before the 41 birthday of East Germany, which was intended)
There were 136 confirmed deaths (as of 7. August 2009**) as a direct result of the Berlin Wall (and at least 251 died during or shortly after checks at Berlin border crossings**); the actual number of deaths is probably much higher. Estimates go as high as over 200 and over 1,000 deaths on the entire border between East and West Germany . East German authorities were trying to cover up any incident as good as possible, which makes it impossible to ever be able to determine the actual number of deaths caused by the Wall and the inner German border.
Break-down of the 136 confirmed deaths**:
98 East German escapees who died during their attempt to cross the border, through deadly fire by border guards, fatal accident or committing suicide.
30 people from East and West Germany without escape intentions were either shot or had fatal accidents at the border.
8 East German border guards, who were killed by a deserter, comrade, escapee, escape helper or by a West-Berlin cop while on-duty.
Figures with unknown source/not verified:
Total number of escaped persons: 218,283 using Disguise, Hand-built Aircrafts, Small Submarines, Hot-Air Balloons, Tunnels, Rudimentary Chair Lifts and other ingenious methods.
Sentences for Escapes: 60,000 with an average term of imprisonment of 16 months. Most of them were “sold off” to West Germany usually for the equivalent of today $75,000 US Dollars a-piece (paid in DM back then) after that time.
…
** Source: Joint project “Die Todesopfer an der Berliner Mauer 1961-1989” (The Fatalities at the Berlin Wall 1961-1989) between "Gedenkstaette Berliner Mauer" (Berlin Wall Memorial) and the "Zentrums fuer Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam" (Center for time based Historic Research Potsdam)
I wrote about the subject of the Berlin Wall already several times in the past and even created some video documentaries to illustrate the events in picture and audio. Here is the list of my previous posts:
The reason for the increased coverage is the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9th, 2009. This is a big event and commemorated around the world.
Appendix A) Names and year of death of the confirmed fatalities**:
1961
Siekmann, Ida Litfin, Günter Hoff, Roland Urban, Rudolf Segler, Olga Lünser, Bernd Düllick, Udo Probst, Werner Lehmann, Lothar Wohlfahrt, Dieter Krüger, Ingo Feldhahn, Georg
1962
Schmiel, Dorit Jercha, Heinz Held, Philipp Schmidtchen, Jörgen (Border Guard) Böhme, Peter Brüske, Klaus Frank, Horst Göring, Peter (Border Guard) Haberlandt, Lutz Hannemann, Axel Glöde, Wolfgang Kelm, Erna Huhn, Reinhold (Border Guard) Noffke, Siegfried Fechter, Peter Wesa, Hans-Dieter Mundt, Ernst Seling, Günter (Border Guard) Walzer, Anton Plischke, Horst Reck, Ottfried Wiedenhöft, Günter
1963
Räwel, Hans Kutscher, Horst Kreitlow, Peter Muszynski, Wolf-Olaf Mädler, Peter Widera, Siegfried (Border Guard) Schröter, Klaus Schulz, Dietmar Berger, Dieter Schultz, Paul
1964
Hayn, Walter Philipp, Adolf Heike, Walter Gneiser, Rainer Wolscht, Norbert Trabant, Hildegard Mispelhorn, Wernhard Schultz, Egon (Border Guard) Wolf, Hans-Joachim Mehr, Joachim
1965
Unknown (N.N.) Buttkus, Christian Krzemien, Ulrich Hauptmann, Hans-Peter Döbler, Hermann Kratzel, Klaus Garten, Klaus Kittel, Walter Cyrius, Heinz Sokolowski, Heinz Kühn, Erich Schöneberger, Heinz
1966
Brandes, Dieter Block, Willi Schleusener, Lothar Hartmann, Jörg Marzahn, Willi Schulze, Eberhard Kollender, Michael Stretz, Paul Wroblewski, Eduard Schmidt, Heinz Senk, Andreas Kube, Karl-Heinz
1967
Sahmland, Max Willi Piesik, Franciszek
1968
Weckeiser, Elke Weckeiser, Dieter Mende, Herbert Lehmann, Bernd Krug, Siegfried Körner, Horst Henninger, Rolf (Border Guard)
I wasn’t really happy with how my ASCII nude’s gallery One thing that bugged me the most was that it was hard to find a certain piece and that the selection was somewhat confusing. The confusion came from overload. I wanted to put too much stuff into too little space. I added a couple months ago the feature of having the selection boxes with the image thumbnails of the 100 ASCII art pieces scroll horizontally, which looked nice, but did not really help with the usability. So I removed it again (It wasn’t with Internet Explorer anyway).
The selection is now again a grid (10 x 10), as it was at the beginning. See the partial screen shot of gallery page below where you can see how the grid looks today. First thing you will notice is that there is only one thumbnail image for each ASCII now; instead of two (the second thumb was showing the image with white font on black background).
The second thing you will notice is the larger preview thumb which is 400 pixels high for vertical pictures and 400 pixels wide for horizontal pictures. The preview thumb appears when you hover over one of the hundred mini thumbnails (which get’s highlighted when hovered over). There was a bug with the highlighting border of the picture that is currently shown in full, which I believe I got fixed now as well.
From the grid are you still having the fairly new features that I did not add with the current change but a couple weeks ago already, which allows you to open (and save or print) the original ASCII text art piece in a separate window. Simply click on the text link “ASCII” below the thumbnail of the picture. If I found the original photograph of picture that the artist used as model for his ASCII, a text link labeled "Photo" is shown right from the "ASCII" text link also below the thumbnail. That photo is also opened in a new browser window.
If you wondered what happened to the option to look at the ASCII with white font on black background instead of black font on white background, no worries. The feature is still there, just not accessible directly from the main selection grid. You can access this alternative version, if you clicked on a thumbnail in the grid to load the full size version of an ASCII. Above the ASCII are now two buttons. Automatically selected is the first button labeled "White Bg". Next to it is the second button labeled "Black Bg". Click on that and the visual presentation of the ASCII will change from the white/black mode to the negative or inverse black/white mode. See the illustration below, which shows this nicely.
I also would like to remind you of my special post, where I show side by side the ASCII art pictures where I found the original model photograph (50 of the 100 ASCII’s as of today). That post focuses specifically on the comparison of the original photograph to the picture and thus offers some view options that are not available from the main collection page and grid. A good example would be the special image that shows in a single picture the original and the ASCII side by side. There you can also get a picture snapshot version of the ASCII, if you like to have that, for the use elsewhere (like a presentation slide or video or whatever).
There are still 50 ASCII art pieces where I have not found the model/source photograph yet.
Your help is still needed, if you would like to do so. You can find out more details about what you could do at this post of mine, which is specifically about the "What" and "How".
I found a few more nude ASCIIs, which I want to add to my collection eventually. However, I am still looking for more. If you have any that I do not have in my collection yet, please let me know and send me a copy or a link to the place where I can download it. I only look for authentic ASCIIs and not for any current day automatic conversions of photographs that were done with an Image 2 ASCII converter.
Let me finish this post with two of my favorite nude ASCIIs where I have unfortunately not found the original photograph that was used by the artist as model yet. Do you recognize them and could point me into the right direction? Post it to the comments below. I’d appreciate it. Thanks.
I continued to tweak the gallery even further. Now it is also much easier to access the original photo or picture that was used by the text artist as motive for his ASCII as well a the side by side comparison of the ASCII with that original photo were it is available. That’s available for 50 of the 100 ASCIIs.
I added them to the selection bar where I already had the options to switch between the different display modes and the link to download the original ASCII text file. Oh, I also changed the layout of that download link to distinguish it from the display options selectors and to better indicate that it is triggering a download in a new browser window.
The screen shot below shows the triggered “View Photo” option.
The second screen shot shows the triggered “Side by Side” option, where you can see the downscaled versions of the original photograph or image next to the ASCII version of it.
I hope that you will also enjoy those latest updates and enhancements of my ASCII Nudes gallery.
Unlike my much more elaborate video “Berlin Wall – Lessons Learned”, my “shorty” in between, titled "Moments in History: The Fall of the Berlin Wall" got a lot more attention than I would have expected. The nearing anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall plays probably into this, because I was contacted by various parties over the past months requesting my permission to use my video for a project of them.
The list of people who contacted me is long, an independent film maker in Venezuela, a French TV show called "Les films faits à la maison", a project manager with Epigram Pte Ltd in Singapore who is working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore on the Welcome Reception for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting and the Unveiling Ceremony of the Berlin Wall on 10 November 2009 in Singapore, the German Embassy in the republic of Moldau or Moldawien for a the screening at a rock concert with projected 20,000 visitors at the largest square of the republic, the Square of the Republic in the capital Chisinau for the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall in Berlin and some teachers and other individuals.
I was able to tell all of them about the stuff when it comes to MY creative work (the editing of the videos, my images or my written content), which could be protected by copyright laws, if I am not mistaken.
I made it clear that everybody is free to use it however they like. I won't and never intended to claim any rights for this stuff. I did not protect it under copyright law. I think that this is way too important for society as a whole that there should be anybody able to block access to this material based on copyright claims.
Actually, when it comes to the videos itself, I even put them up on the Internet Archive at archive.org, where I had to acknowledge that I do not claim any rights for it and agree to making it available freely (Public Domain).
I think that it would be appropriate to include my name in the credits, if the stuff that I created is being used, but that is not a legal issue and more a matter of respect and acknowledgement.
Since I am interested in this subject (which is obvious), I would also appreciate, if people would share with me any content that is produced on their end. Sending me that stuff in digital format would be good enough for me although I encourage everybody to make that stuff generally available to the public on the Internet anyway.
Now the problem is with the material that I used for my videos. There does the situation looks a little bit different. There I cannot give something that I don’t have. I did not shoot that footage myself. It came from various sources. Some I was able to trace back, but most of it I could not. So here is what I know and also what I think, including possible contacts and places where it might be possible to get more information about the legal situation of the used material.
Sources for my Moments in History: The Fall of the Berlin Wall Video
The short video of mine titled "Moments in History: The Fall of the Berlin Wall" featured primarily images that were also used in the German documentary DVD "Spiegel TV - Der Fall der Mauer" (ISBN #: 3-937901-04-3). This documentary is unfortunately not listed in IMDB.com nor IMDB.de to find out more, but the contact information are printed on the DVD itself. There it states: Spiegel TV Brandstwiete 19 D-20457 Hamburg Telefon: +49 (0)40 - 301 08-0 Fax: +49 (0)40 - 301 08-222
For the Guenther Schabowsky segment where he announces the new travel law, I used the video footage from the Spiegel TV DVD, but the audio from somewhere else. This scene was on public television news in West Germany and East Germany as well, so I don't think that there would be any problem with that.
I used 3 scenes of the demolition of the Wall that were not from the Spiegel TV DVD.
One was from the National Geographic documentary "Turning Points Of History: The Berlin Wall" where I only got the "pirated version" of. I tried to buy the DVD, but I could not find it anywhere, including the official National Geographic Online Shop. The only place I know where you can get it from (where I also got it myself) is this PIRATED TORRENT, where you can download the documentary in AVI format. This documentary is listed in IMDB.com and you can find out more here.
A second scene was from CNN, which I found at their web site at CNN ImageSource. Record #: 91482586 from Date: 20-Mar-1990. In the case of CNN, I just placed an order for a screener in digital format of that footage, just to find out more. Since there is no price tag nor any payment that I had to make, I will see what will happen. The confirmation page stated that somebody from CNN will contact me regarding this order. We will see.
Sources for my 30 Min Video Berlin Wall - Lessons Learned V4.0
My long video (30+ minutes) “Berlin Wall - Lessons Learned V4.0" uses way to many different sources that I could name them all. Just the tons of photographs alone came from all over the place.
The versions before that (Version 1, Version 2 and Version 3) used even more. I was happy that I found the National Geographic documentary, because it contained many of the video images that I used before but in better quality (I used low res 320x240 video segments from videos that I found on YouTube and other video sharing web sites). The Spiegel documentary contains even more images and in DVD quality. Because of that I plan to make even another version 5 of my video. The “Moments in History” video was only supposed to be a teaser of things to come. :)
Since my video is not commercial in nature and is an educational documentary depicting historic events of high significance for society, I am pretty sure that the U.S. copyright law exception for "fair use" can be applied to it or at least it should be.
I am not a lawyer, so take that statement with a grain of salt of course.
Laws are also different in every country. Maybe it is legal where you live without all the fuzz that we have to deal with here in the United States. However, for some of the material I do know the legal status. Specifically the Newsreel footage that I used for the images from the early 1960s. That material was also used in commercial documentaries like the one from National Geographic, which makes it easily appear as if this is protected commercial content and not public domain. Who knows about the rest of the material. Well, National Geographic for example, I would guess. :)
"In the age before television people saw the news every week in their neighborhood movie theater, in the newsreels that were shown with every feature film. These short news films were produced by the Big Five Hollywood studios and contained six or seven stories usually one or two minute in length, covering politics and sports and fashions and whatever might entertain the movie audience to keep them coming back every week. A selection of these newsreels is now available on DVDs made by Professor Steven Schoenherr for history classes at the University of San Diego.
”These visual historical documents have been reproduced from reference cassettes at the National Archives in College Park MD from the Universal Newsreel gift collection made to the federal government in 1970 of 30 million feet of film from 1929-67. In living black-and-white, they offer a fascinating and unique view of an era when motion pictures defined our culture."
This means that the footage itself is public domain. However, since the footage that is floating around is most likely from those DVDs, giving credits to Professor Steven Schoenherr and his team at the University of San Diego for the preservation and restoration/conversion work is not only nice and fair, but also reveals sources properly and provides the info how and where to access those primary sources (for other historians and researchers). Here are links to the Newsreel videos that include material about the Berlin Wall.
Public Domain Newsreel Footage about the Berlin Wall
The Wall, 1962/08/16 Big freedom bell rings in West Berlin on 1st anniv of Berlin Wall; checkpoints; U.S. army patrols in jeep; Brandt leads memorial services (partial newsreel).
Berlin, 1961/08/31 News in Brief story on Berlin, showing pictures of US soldiers and tanks and British troops who convoy boy going to school, building Berlin Wall, young couple waves from window (partial newsreel) Related: Berlin Airlift 1948 and East Berlin Uprising 1953
1953 anniversary of 1953 East Berlin uprising anniversary of 1953 East Berlin uprising celebrated in West Berlin, mayor Willy Brandt lays wreath, old film clips of '53 uprising (partial newsreel from 1959)
Berlin Siege. Gen. Clay Returns To Report On Red Crisis, 1948/07/22 (1) The World Crisis - "Berlin: While the Western Allies increase their aerial shuttle into Berlin, Russia's refusal to negotiate leaves issue in doubt. The threat of a show-down brings the world close to war. East Anglia: Landing on fields used by our 8th Air Force during the war, sixty Superforts arrive on training mission. Berlin crisis lends significance to huge bombers' arrival. Washington: Gen...
Uneasy Peace. Algeria Tense Under Cease-Fire, 1962/03/22 1) Algeria rebels have signed peace with France, but right wing army still fighting (2) Argentina election (3) Jackie Kennedy rides elephant in India (4) Russia trying to close access to West Berlin, U.S. army sends tanks on autobahn in Germany (5) fashions (6) skating world championships (complete newsreel)
Labor Merger. AF of L and CIO Join Forces, 1955/12/05 (1) NY meeting of CIO and AFL for merger, Walter Reuther and George Meany, and Ike from his office speaks (Ike's voice over pictures of the convention) (2) largest jet helicopter unveiled (3) British jet transport Comet 3 (4) Conant rejects Berlin change (5) Modern Screen awards (6) orange cow in NY with bathing beauties for PR stunt (7) Arthur the robot built by high school youth (8) sports: Rams vs Colts football (complete newsreel) Related, Hungarian Revolt of 1956
1956/10/24 Freedom Road. Hungarian Patriots force Red Retreat (complete newsreel) SOURCE: 200 Universal 29-88, National Archives, College Park MD Hungarian Revolt - red star ripped out of Hungary flags, patriots guard frontier, medical supplies airlifted, demonstrations in US
1956/11/01 War in Egypt. British and French Bomb Its Key Cities (complete newsreel) SOURCE: 200 Universal 29-89, National Archives, College Park MD "Hungary Free But Faces Threat Of New Red Invasion" - the end of a 6-day fight, Hungary was free, scenes of Budapest; funeral
1956/11/12 Near East Crises "Last Stand. Hungarians Fight On As Thousands Flee" - fighting in streets of Budapest, flags burn, refugees flee to Austrian border, sad crying faces
Also related,but could not find video on Archive.org
1953/03/16 - Refugees From Reds (partial newsreel) SOURCE: 200 Universal 26-448 National Archives, College Park MD "Berlin: Thousands of Eastern Germans seek sanctuary in West Germany from their hopeless fate under communism. Daily they cross the border into West Berlin, often at the risk of their lives. Here they are screened for disposition throughout the Bonn Republic."
1953/07/27 - First Films of Korea Armistice (complete sound newsreel) SOURCE: 200 Universal 26-486 National Archives, College Park MD - First parcels of $15 million worth U.S. food handed out in West Berlin for 200,000 East Germans who crossed the Iron Curtain - News In Brief - Monsoon weather and floods in Japan as U.S. planes drop food and supplies; In West Germany, Czechs show home-made armored car used to escape across border
Another Update January 2010:
Another source was also the 9 minutes black and white mini documentary from 1962 called “The Wall”, which was produced by Hearst Metrotone News Inc. The same content was also used by the National Geographic documentary as well as the documentary by Spiegel TV. I must have used the footage from the 1962 documentary, because there was no TY channel or other branding watermark logo in the segments that I used for my video. I downloaded the documentary somewhere on the internet. I also saw it on the video sharing web site “Dailymotion.com” but did not use that version for my video, due to the poor quality of it there.
Additional Stuff
I used some (smaller and modified) images of official East German documents that belonged to me in the post of my personal written account of the events surrounding the Fall of the Berlin Wall. I uploaded larger versions and additional documents to a (non public) Google Picasa Album of mine. There you can also find the image (and more) of the personal document of mine with the Travel VISA in it for example. I made those images available to the entities who asked for it.
You might also want to check out the following links regarding stuff that I wrote and edited about the subject "Berlin Wall". Blog posts of mine to the subject.
Somebody who contacted me pretty early regarding my “Lessons Learned” Video was somebody from Berlin with the Name “Remo” who is working on a Memorial Project directly in Berlin Itself. I won’t publish his Email address here, but you might want to check out the projects web site at denkmal-ddr-opfer.de
He should also have collected some more material since the last time I communicated with him. Asking does not hurt, right?
Conclusion and Final Words
Any help with determining the legal status of any of the historic footage about the events surrounding the Berlin Wall is appreciated. I think that the historic significance for the society as a whole should outweigh any commercial interest by a single entity or person when it comes to the non-commercial use of the material. Anything but that would be terribly wrong in my opinion. This would basically restrict access to original sources of events that should not be forgotten and thus represent a very sneaky form of censorship in order to be able to possibly manipulate public opinion about the events and how they actually happened.
I just have to think about statements like “Ronald Reagan” was responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall and rubbish like that. Yeah, he had a small part in it, but only a small, contributing to the events as a whole. No, “Michael Gorbachev” can also not be solely credited with this achievement although he as well had a small part in it as well. Things were not that simple, black and white or linear in nature. That would be nice though and some people would like, if everybody believes that egocentric and reduced view on the actual historic events, but we would definitely not do us a favor by allowing this to happen.
It took only ages, but I finally managed to get it done, the complete list of SAC Intros/Cracktros/BBStros that were released in the SAC Art Packs between December 1994 and May 2007 are now up on the site where they belong. Well, not just a list, that would have been not a problem and could have been done in one afternoon.
For each intro are detailed credits shown, links to the SAC artpack where they were released, links to resources, like the tracker modules, pixel logos and fontgraphics and other goodies were also added, where I was able to extract them, find them on the Internet or had them on my hard disk.
I was able to capture most intros in video format, since most of them are not running under Windows 32 let behold Windows 64 bit anymore. You can watch the videos right from the listings page,download the original videos in AVI or WMV format (from my file share at Mediafire.com) or watch them on YouTube where I also uploaded them to my SACReleases channel on YouTube and added a link to the intro.
There were over 90 cracktros, bbstros and invtros, which I first had on a single page, but I then realized that having users load a page of several MB in size might not be such a good idea after all and decided to break it down intro multiple pages… 4 pages to be exact. Here are the links to the 4 new pages:
Below is an illustration of how it should look like*
* I tested it with Microsoft Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and Google Chrome more or less and believe that it works fine and hope that this also covers the browsers that I have not tested directly myself :O.
I will keep my fingers crossed. Please let me know, if you notice anything unusual or a straight forward bug. Thanks in advance, I’d appreciate it.
The air conditioning broke again, the second time this year and temperatures are again rising to 90 degrees Fahrenheit (over 30 degrees Celsius) in my apartment. This does not make want to write much more. The computers also start to overheat anyway.
That’s it… Yeah, a short post.. not doing the occasion justice, but then its normal, that if something took particularly long to accomplish, you tend not to have much to say about it afterwards. :)
Update Note: I updated the SACtros page with the SAC Pack Intro videos to match the look and feel of the SAC Intros pages. It’s also cross referenced with those pages now.
The old look was nice and unique, but I have to admit that it was a) not that user friendly and b) was more experimental (along with the bugs that come along with an experimental web page hehe).
I captured a screen shot of the old SACtros page, just for the archive and for the memory. Click on the Thumbnail image to see the snap shot in actual size. ---------------->
This is the backup of my old Blogger Self Hosted (Update via FTP) blog. A feature that was removed from Blogger in early 2010. My actual blog (with new posts and the old ones) can be found at http://www.roysac.com/blog/
This is an updated and extended version of the historic timeline of the events about and surrounding the Berlin Wall that separated a city and it’s people for over 28 years. 
136 confirmed deaths (as of 7. August 2009**) as a direct result of the Berlin Wall (and at least 251 died during or shortly after checks at Berlin border crossings**); the actual number of deaths is probably much higher. Estimates go as high as over 200 and over 1,000 deaths on the entire border between East and West Germany . East German authorities were trying to cover up any incident as good as possible, which makes it impossible to ever be able to determine the actual number of deaths caused by the Wall and the inner German border.
One was from the National Geographic documentary "Turning Points Of History: The Berlin Wall" where I only got the "pirated version" of. I tried to buy the DVD, but I could not find it anywhere, including the official 
A second scene was from CNN, which I found at their web site at CNN 
My long video (30+ minutes) “
Laws are also different in every country. Maybe it is legal where you live without all the fuzz that we have to deal with here in the United States. However, for some of the material I do know the legal status. Specifically the Newsreel footage that I used for the images from the early 1960s. That material was also used in commercial documentaries like the one from National Geographic, which makes it easily appear as if this is protected commercial content and not public domain. Who knows about the rest of the material. Well, National Geographic for example, I would guess. :)
Another Update January 2010:
For each intro are detailed credits shown, links to the SAC art pack where they were released, links to resources, like the tracker modules, pixel logos and font graphics and other goodies were also added, where I was able to extract them, find them on the Internet or had them on my hard disk.
