[A2k] Re: Copyright Should Encourage Derivative Works

[Lea Shaver]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
This idea is actually what makes me a bit unsatisfied with the term "users
rights" -- it suggests that we can neatly divide the world into "creators"
and "users" and that the two categories have opposing interests/rights,
which need to be balanced against each other.

That framing obfuscates the collaborative nature of most creativity.
Especially in a digital era, almost all of us are both creators and users,
and I suspect our interests in creation and use are more aligned (in favor
of openness) than the conventional account of users vs. creators assumes.

We need rhetorical framings that don't buy into the idea that artists need
to be protected from the public, and newspapers need to be protected from
bloggers, and professional songwriters need to be protected from amateur
musicians trading guitar tabs.

Instead, the law should promote an environment enabling all of us to be
creative. I think the human rights frame's emphasis on cultural
participation and inclusion can do that. I also like the phrase "freedom to
innovate."

Lea Bishop Shaver
Associate Research Scholar
& Lecturer in Law
Yale Law School
Information Society Project
lea.shaver@yale.edu
203-535-2560 (mobile)


On Sat, Jul 4, 2009 at 2:17 AM, Jeffrey A. Williams
<jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>wrote:

> All,
>
>  Of course this makes perfect sense.  Now that yet again recognized,
> one has to wonder why organizations like Big Pharma, the RIAA,
> the MPAA, and even a significant segment of our elected officials,
> for example can't or won't recognize such.
>
> See: http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3D09/07/03/1528259
>
> Techdirt has an interesting look at copyright and the idea that an
> author is the originator of a new work. Instead, the piece suggests that
> http://techdirt.com/articles/20090629/0230145396.shtml all
> works are in some way based on the works of others (even our own
> copyright law), and the system should be much more encouraging of
> "remixing" work into new, unique experiences. "Friedman also points back
> to another recent post where he discusses the nature of content
> creation, based on a blog post by Rene Kita. In it, she points out that
> remixing and creating through collaboration and building on the works
> of others has always been the norm. It's what we do naturally. It's only
> in the last century or so, when we reached a means of recording,
> manufacturing and selling music =97 which was limited to just those with
> the machinery and capital to do it, that copyright was suddenly brought
> out to 'protect' such things."
>
> Regards,
>
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