Creative Commons Blog
Judy De Los Santos says:
May 7, 2011 at 3:03 am
Lawrence Lessig brought out so many good points about Copyright and Creative Commons. It is pioneers like himself that will change the world around us for the better. These videos have been helpful in understanding how Creative Commons work. I will be passing this information along to my students. They know that they are breaking the law when they download and copy copyrighted music and images. Pushing them towards creative commons may help keep them from trouble and open them up to a new way of “borrowing”. Perhaps Creative Commons will push public domain into obscurity in such a way that Copyright and continuously increasing Copyright laws will no longer matter. That may help alleviate the confusion and lawlessness of these “pirates”.
Comment to Michael George 111
Michael George III says:
May 4, 2011 at 9:57 pm
“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.” -Montesquieu
First off, I want to disclaim that Lawrence Lessig is one of my heroes. This man stood before the Supreme Court in a famous case ‘Eldred v. Ashcroft’ also known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Sonny Bono Act, or pejoratively as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act and argued against extending the length of copyright any further. Copyright is effectively becoming perpetual copyright since it keeps getting extended.
As of 1976, the length of copyright was the authors life + 50 years. After that the copyright expired and the work entered the public domain for all to use for FREE. Walt Disney died in 1966 and as you know 1966+50=2006 so the Walt Disney Corporation was in danger of having all the old Disney characters fall into the public domain. This sent shockwaves through Disney and lobbyists to congress.
Walt Disney has been making good money off the public domain by repacking stories for years. Snow White and the Seven dwarves is a repacking of a public domain story by the Grimm Brothers. Disney has been turning a profit on public domain stories (Hercules, Moses, Robin Hood, Aladdin, Pochahontas, Tarzan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame) for years, but when it came time to contribute back their solution was to lobby congress to extend copyright effectively destroying the public domain. In another 20 years when it comes time for Mickey Mouse to face entering the public domain they will lobby congress again to extend the copyright act.
As you can guess, Lessing lost the Supreme Court Case, but he didn’t take it sitting down. He decided to found the Creative Commons. This is a new area where authors can select various types of copyrights and grant rights for different uses. These type of licenses have been working out really well in the software world, but the entertainment industry is not on board.
Just to give you an idea of how twisted the thinking of the entertainment industry is in their thinking, imagine a device that cleans up movies on DVD so you can watch them with your kids and not have to cringe a F-bombs, graphic violence, and sex. A device exists called ClearPlay. You stick a regular DVD into the ClearPlay DVD player and it will skip over the trash and mute foul language. Even though the consumer bought the DVD, the copyright owners (movie studios) claim that the consumers are violating copyright law when they use Clearplay to skip and mute trash in the movie because this is an altered copy.
Big media has made it very clear that the customer is the enemy and they reserve all rights to do whatever they want and control how you consume their content. Just put in a DVD or Blue-Ray disc and see how long it takes to get to the movie. They lockout the controls to keep the consumer from skipping ahead and force them to watch ads and FBI warnings.
The Creative Commons is a nice start to fixing the copyright mess we are currently in, but it isn’t the final solution since it is essentially a contract. The concept of the Creative Commons needs to have the full force of law so that it can be upheld in court. The Creative Commons is no substitute for a healthy public domain. It makes you wonder what Disney will do when they run out of material to repackage from the public domain.
Judy De Los Santos says:
May 7, 2011 at 2:40 am
Michael,
Great lesson! I was not aware of any of these things you have mentioned. Lawrence Lessig is fighting the good fight on copyright. What a shame about Clearplay. It sounds like a wonderful and needed invention. Lets look 20 years into the future. What do you think the copyright outcome for Disney looks like? Heaven forbid that Disney might actually have to resort to creativity to stay relevant in the future without feeding off of public domain.
Comment to Hunter Looney
Hunter Looney says:
May 6, 2011 at 9:02 am
I had no idea that a device like ClearPlay existed. That would be an amazing tool to have. It is ridiculous that they stated that is broke copyright laws stating that it was an altered copy. We as consumers have been getting the boot with this. When I buy something it is now mine. As long as I am not selling it or giving it away for free after altering it I should be ok to do with it as I please. Eventually will we get to a state where we are so encumbered by laws that we are unable to make anything that has anything resembling creativity.
Judy De Los Santos says:
May 7, 2011 at 2:27 am
Hunter,
Does the term draconian ring a bell? Eventually something has to give before real progress can be made. There is way too much shortsightedness in these laws and extensions.
Comment to Rowdy Granado
Rowdy Granado says:
May 6, 2011 at 12:22 am
I find myself on the fence many times when it comes to Copyright laws. I know for a fact if I were an artist, I would not want anyone copying my work and profiting from it. I am by no means an artist, but I can see the side of those who are always having their copyright violated. When I create content for our school’s website, I can usually find images or graphic buttons I created popping up on other sites within our district because other school’s webmaster’s are taking my work and using it on their site.
And today, it seems as if creativity tends to be how far can we take what’s already out there, tweek it, change it up a little and call it our own. I know with the world getting smaller, in a global network sense, there are so many opportunities to find new “inspirations” for creativity. With creative commons, I like that artists and creators of content are willingly giving the rights to their work to use. And if there were more places like this, then maybe there could be a revamping of the current Copyright laws to take this into account and be more black and white with the laws now that there are more places to get content.
Reply
Hunter Looney says:
May 6, 2011 at 8:49 am
That must be frustrating to see content that you created ending up on other people’s websites. It is crazy. You probably don’t want to raise a stink about it though because they are in your district. Is that right? You are in a rock and a hard place.
I also think that the Creative Commons has provided a location for settlement of a lot of the issues in copyright laws. This site is so easy to use. It is amazing. Maybe even Awesome (like our old team). I agree if there were more solutions out there like Creative Commons then it would be much easier for legislation.
Judy De Los Santos says:
May 7, 2011 at 3:19 am
Rowdy,
I believe that there is a code you can use to prevent someone from dragging your pictures onto their computer. You can also watermark them or place the little c, the date and your name/email address on them. Maybe this will help keep your images yours. Ingenuity has left the building and made way for taking and repackaging. Such is the nature of today. Have you considered using Creative Commons for your images?
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