2002.10.10
2002.10.10
in the growing battle over who controls copyrights (in this case corporate media) and consumer rights, it’s nice to see someone in the government actually siding with the consumer. “Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, plans today to introduce the ‘Digital Choice and Freedom Act,’ Silicon Valley’s response to a host of Hollywood-backed bills tilted in favor of copyright holders.”
copyright is, indeed, extremely important for the creator. without it, making a living at any sort of art would be almost impossible unless we reverted to a system of sponsorship. right now, however, copyright extends well past the lifetime of the creator. imagine, 70 years beyond your death, you still own your copyright.
these days, however, you don’t own your copyright. the company you work for does, so they can actually maintain their copyright -more or less- indefinately. i guess it does turn out to be a sort of sponsorship. corporate sponsorship. corporations buy other corporations and acquire their copyrights. as various media conglomerates grow and consolidate, copyrights become held by fewer “owners”.
in the end, with the current trends and serious lobbying by the few remaining media empires, very few will have the ability to take advantage of existing copyright. corporations will ruthlessly prosecute those that come close to violating what they own.
it’s a relief that representative zoe lofgren is standing up to this. afterall, the constitution says it best: The Congress shall have Power To… promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. (emphasis mine). somehow to me “limited Times” to me doesn’t sound like the lifetime of the author plus 70 years. who thought of that anyways? oh yeah, sonny bono. and “Authors and Inventors” doesn’t sound like the description of a corporation. i realize that over time the law has been molded so that corporations are a legal entity with legal rights, but a corporation is not a person no matter how you hack it.
copyright as a law was instituted to protect the owners from theft. this is admirable. i wouldn’t like my stuff being stolen, whether my boots or my few songs. however, copyright was also instituted as a form of incentive to create and invent. with the copyright you can make money, albeit for a “limited Time”. part of the reason for the limitation was to prevent a monopoly.
originally this limited time was 14 years (and could be renewed for 14 more years), as defined in the US Copyright Act of 1790. dwell on that for a while.
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