This article is from the rec.arts.movies.past-films FAQ, by Evelyn C. Leeper evelynleeper@geocities.com with numerous contributions by others.
Various legal and moral issues. As most of you
probably know, Ted Turner and others have taken to adding "color" old
black and white films. "Color" is in quotes, because it is questionable
whether you can really call it color. Anyway, there is, every so often,
a discussion of some aspect of this. There are a whole host of legal
and moral/ethical issues involved here. Suprisingly there really seems
to be a fair mix of opinion on this issue. No, you cannot just turn off
the color on your television; adding color changes the values of the
various sections so they show up differently. However, adding color
requires a restored clean print, so many claim that the money from
selling color-added films is being used to preserve the films (in black
and white as well as in color). It has been ruled illegal to add color
to CITIZEN KANE due to the way Orson Welles's contract was written.
(Boyajian points out that "Colorization" is a trademarked term.)
 
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