Category Archives: Fair Use

Clinton Speech on Copyright

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In a recent meeting of the Creativity Conference, made up of many industries involved with copyrighted material, such as the Motion Picture association of America, former president Clinton gave a speech on the future of copyright. Many people at the talk were discussing the prospect of making copyright laws stricter to combat the growing prevalence of piracy. Clinton however, took a different approach. He instead argued that copyright should be more flexible, where original creators are protected without ruining the chances for new material to be created. In his own words, “We have to keep struggling to find the right balance between creativity, broadly and quickly shared, and as widely understood as possible, and making it reasonably profitable for people to be creatives”. It is difficult to initially say who is right in this position. We have been discussing this matter as a class throughout the semester, and it is clear that there needs to be some balance. As to what is truly balanced remains open for further debate, which we should continue to do in the remainder of our class periods.

http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2013/04/26/1930001/former-president-clinton-calls-for-copyright-flexibility-crowdfunding-and-creative-sustainability/?mobile=nc

What about wikis?

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Just a thought. I was reading in Howard again, and read that one form of “piracy” in the early days of the printing press was to print abridged versions of a manuscript. Then, of course, selling them unbeknownst to the author of the original and keeping all the profits. I immediately saw this as a parallel to wikis (or wikias) today. At first, we can understand that this might be problematic for copyright because it contains all the information about a given text in one place. I would guess that it ends up in fair use most likely because the purpose of the use is not for profit; they are just meant to be encyclopedias. However, a bigger dilemma occurs when someone reads the wiki before reading the actual text. This happened to me. I was curious about Shaman King, because I had never watched it to its ending and thought that it was cancelled in America before its last episode. I went on to the wikia and read up on the plot and the characters. I felt no need to go back and read the manga because I had already absorbed the story. This is why abridged versions are problematic. They give the reader a short, concise expression of the story, so anyone not interested in particular language gets their fill and never buys the cumbersome original.

Thursday’s Class

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Many things took place in Thursday’s class, but my favorite part of the entire class period was the discussion of the knockoff Harry Potter books. The example given in class was very poorly done, and made no attempt to hide the fact that it was a copy of other source material. Like many other examples of copyright infringement seen in the class up to this point, this particular example came from China, a country notorious for violating copyright laws. It makes me wonder what other popular works from our country have been copied in one way or another in China. I’d imagine that there would be other hilarious examples.

J.K. Rowling and the Boy Scientist

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We have read a lot about the legal issues which burden J.K. Rowling in the wake of her successful Harry Potter series. Striphas emphasizes two major market behaviors threatening Rowling’s copyright: first, he discusses the pre-releasing of Potter books internationally before moving to the international knockoffs such as Tanya Grotter. All this reading of Harry Potter calls to mind another possible copyright influenced work on the famous wizard.

The fanfiction Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is, if my friends are any indication, an incredibly popular text. I believe that fanfictions rarely stand out, this one being a remarkable exception for its pleasing storytelling, interesting premise, and wonderful use of popular literary devices. A disclaimer on the fan-fiction’s original site reads “J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, and no one owns the methods of rationality*.” Interestingly enough, though the author credits Rowling, he does not credit himself. This fascinating political ploy epitomizes the divide between fanfiction and knockoffs. Though knockoffs seek to exploit the popularity of a work for profit, fanfiction only borrows a text’s popularity in order to create an interesting adaptation. In fact, “borrow” might not cut it here. A person who writes fanfiction deliberately plays on the popularity of a work for a purpose higher than profit or their own popularity.

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*Although in the following sentence I take the phrase “methods of rationality” in the disclaimer to mean the title of the fan-fiction, I have discovered a second meaning. Yudkowsky probably also refers to the general methods of rationality, the process of rationalization, which are owned by no one since they are innate in all people. Thus, he is commenting on that higher purpose which closes my blog entry by promoting his own philosophy epitomized in the blog Less Wrong.

Intersection of Perfomance and Art and Performance Art

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Why pay more for a concert when you can enjoy crystal clear music in the comfort of your own home? Anyone who has ever been to a concert, mosh, or other appearance of a favorite artist will tell you the experience is everything. The concert is an entirely different product than the music recording; the musician truly becomes an artist since she works with visual as well as sound media. Such is the case with a brilliant piece by the brilliant Amanda Palmer. Watching this video, I hope you’ll notice it is not your average straight song variety. She uses Gaga’s Bad Romance in a satirical performance which comments on Gaga herself as well as performance art in general. The fact that the song is not hers only emphasizes the other elements of the show that she had to plan and create. The choreography, wardrobe, sequencing, and original spoken parts are all products of Palmer, and come together to create a unique experience which is entirely hers. In this way, live performances would operate just like books under a copyright.

Tuesday’s Class

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Tuesday’s class discussion about the prospect of a celestial jukebox brought up some interesting points. Most notably, many people were divided on the issue of whether or not it was a good idea to level the playing field between large corporations and smaller parties. Those arguing in favor of such a leveling believed that getting rid of distributors would make it easier for the smaller parties to have their work made available to people and, as a result, would get more notice. This may be true, but what must not be forgotten is that distribution is of itself an industry. Getting rid of this aspect of the process would most likely cost many individuals their jobs and would therefore create quite a bit of damage. As with anything else, the costs must be equally weighed with the benefits.

Parodies: Pony Fabulous

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Today, I saw a very well done parody video of one of Taylor Swift’s new songs. After watching, I thought of its implications in terms of copyright, and decided that this video indeed fell under fair use. The purpose of the work is purely entertainment. Since this entertainment is geared, I suspect, to an audience who generally dislikes Swift, the effect on the original song’s potential market is null. With two of the four factors of fair use checked off, I would like to bring a bit of my frenemy Goldstein into this discussion. As noted from his discussion of software protection under copyright, copyright does not protect the method or process of a text, only its expression (191). The creator of this video certainly does not replicate Swift’s expression of her song, since he changes the lyrics entirely and score slightly; his message/theme is entirely different from hers. The sound itself can be thought of as the process: copying that is perfectly legal.

Only a few minutes after thinking of this blog post, I remembered another parody video of a different nature. This video was made by a TV station in order to promote its own show. Since I’m running out of space, I want to consider if this economic element changes the argument for fair use. What makes Equestria Girls different from I Knew Gary Was Trouble? Do they fall under the same or different cases of fair use?

Today’s Presentation – Professor Sikand

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It was truly eye-opening today to hear Professor Sikand’s talk about copyright in the world of film, especially with the issue of the high costs associate with licensing music. What I found a bit saddening was the fact that these costs often dissuade filmmakers from making certain works. In a way, copyright in this case holding back the progression and evolution of film. Granted, we should protect artists and ensure that they do not lose out on revenue from their works. However, perhaps some efforts should be made to ease up on the rules regarding the usage of songs. After all, who knows what potentially great films the world could be missing out on because of all the restrictions in place?

Documentary Filmmakers and Fair Use

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Today’s brownbag brought up some really interesting points.  One point that Professor Sikand mentioned was that many times documentary filmmakers become discouraged by the price of licensing copyrighted works.  This is a shame because most filmmakers do not have the budget of a Hollywood feature film and upon realizing how much the licensing of a song for their movie can be, they often decide against producing or finishing their work.  This prevents many important stories from being told.  Professor Sikand did mention that their is a light at the end of the tunnel.  She mentioned that there are websites that feature music that can be used freely in movies as long as the artist is credited. While reflecting on the short clip we watched where filmmakers were discussing copyrighted works in relation to their films, I decided to look a little bit more into this issue.  While searching the web I cam across this website which highlights documentary filmmakers’ statement of best practices in fair use.

Obama- style Poster Maker…

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My group is using the Fairey vs. Associated Press court case for our second portfolio paper.  In this case, the artist Shepard Fairey, the creator of the iconic “Hope” Obama poster, is accused of copying the photograph taken by an AP photographer. When I was doing research for this essay I stumbled upon multiple sites titled “Obama Poster Maker”. These sites enable anyone to upload photographs and digital produce them in the style of Fairey’s poster. How does copyright law deal with this? Does Fairey own this technique or is it just an ability anyone with Photoshop or googling skills can freely apply to any photograph?