Wk 1 Post #2 Comments to Debra AthertonOf all the videos, I liked Larry Lessig’s the best, because he promulgates an approach encompassing respect both for those who produce now and those who produced before, as well as that paradoxically ephemeral commodity, common sense. Like the gentleman from the Jamaican music company, he recognizes that the massive interconnectivity of our world requires a different SOP from one in which few producers (“writers”) create for passive consumers (“readers”).
On the other hand, how much less grasping is it to wish to possess another’s creative product without returning acknowledgement—and I don’t just mean by putting their name on it! I disagree with those who said it’s human nature to take the opportunity to grab something for free if one can; I find most people have an instinct to pay to acquire the work of their neighbors. And the Internet, as we have experienced so richly this year, makes everybody neighbors. We don’t take our neighbors’ property if it’s left where we can reach it. That’s called stealing.
So while there may be for some forms of art, as with music, an industrial framework that is decrepit and will inevitably collapse under its own weight, there is also a societal necessity to create a cultural framework that both honors and supports artistic endeavor. This, I learned over these days, was the original intention of copyright law. When circumstances pressure a law out of its original intention, it’s time for common sense to “revolt,” and that time for this law has surely come. Let’s not steal from one another, but let’s allow people and art to interact with one another in ways that enrich our culture by encouraging each other to find purpose and value by contributing artistic endeavors to our society.
Posted by Debra Atherton
Hi Debra:
In reading your blog post at Exuberant Mind I agree with you. Like you, my favorite video was that of Mr. Lessig. It seems to me that he has the right idea of and dare I say the “spirit of the © law?” Historically, competition seems, from Lessig’s presentation, to have been the solution for a potentially great injustice to our culture! Music, literature, art, dance, plays/dramas/movies are all part of our culture. The arts are the relics of our society that we leave behind. All that I know as a musician was built on the foundations of those who have gone before. However, we must give them credit where credit is due.
In LMO class, I stumbled upon a creative commons use document when searching for a guitar diagram. It had the (CC) license I could use it for non-commercial use. But something bothered me about that. So I decided to ask the owner about using the document. In so doing, not only did I get to use the original document, he created 2 more, changed the permission use on the bottom of the document and gave me a version I could use for testing, with permission to make copies! It has his branding and contact information. That is an extremely small price to pay for such an excellent resource. Ask and you shall receive...Thank you Mr. Daniel Magnolia at http://www.magnoliaguitar.com
Share, by all means share, but in so doing, respect those who are willing to share with you by giving them credit for their work, however they see fit to acquire such credit. More importantly, we need to teach this rule of respect to our students, starting now.
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