Reply #1 for Wk1 Copyright blog posting. This is my reply to Lionel Jacques on his post on the copyright issues. The link below will take you to his post on his blog where my reply is at.
Lionel Jacques' Copyright Blog Post
MAC Wk1 - Copyright Thoughts!
A lot of information was compressed into the readings for this week. The shorts gave insights to our governments laws and reasons for doing things, and the documentary covered those as well but also spanned out to other nations and movements. I would go so far as to say I went through a progression of sorts myself; at the start I really did feel strongly that taking and using copyrighted material is stealing and laws were needed to help ensure intellectual rights.
However as the documentary unfolded and the Nigerian, Swiss, and especially Brazilian scenes were covered I felt more in tune with what Peter Jenner. The laws and corporations need to evolve and change to a new model. The industry itself is the one that will find the eventual solution for the copyright issue, as in the truly digital age it certainly isn’t up to a single government to stop [see the Danish example in the video]. It is true there are casualties; you can’t argue that Tower Records is closed down – but does piracy kill it or the digital mp3? If the model changes new avenues and options open up and will lead to a sort of rebirth for the music industry.
As we traveled through the documentary especially, we get to the end where an original song has traveled around the world be sampled and remixed to end up where it started and contributing again – that is an awesome lead to follow.
@ Lionel
There was indeed a lot of information on copyright and the details surrounding it for this week. I know I kind of felt the same way as you did that using copyrighted material is stealing and to get permission had you jumping through so many hoops that it would leave many frustrated in attempting that. I did also like the Nigerian documentary as well. Laws need to evolve just as society and culture has to evolve and copyright is no exception. In the Nigerian documentary, you can see the Nigerians being able to express themselves more in film and audio as they are able to take another persons work and add to it, creating something more than the original. Within reason, this is what our copyright law should evolve to reflect. To the answer to your question about did piracy kill Tower Records or the digital mp3, I would say it was a little bit of both to be honest. Piracy most likely started the trend and the advent of the digital mp3 to put the nail in the coffin on it. Your assessment of the need for the copyright model to change is spot on, though, in reality, I think it will be a long and tedious road before that does change.
No comments:
Post a Comment