As we live in
the Information Age of today, it's becoming increasingly harder for artists,
old and new, to make a living because of controversy surrounding copyright laws
and protection of intellectual property in general. My stance on the issue is
this: I agree that an artist should be protected and rightfully compensated for
their work, while I also agree that aspiring artists should be allowed to
utilize another’s work.
Not in the same sense as plagiarism, of course, but
taking something they like and incorporating it somewhere, like a musician
taking bits and pieces from a song to form a new one, or a writer borrowing
ideas and a style from an author they admire to form their own stories. There’s
even web shows that are featuring people who’ve made a living reviewing and
critiquing mainstream media using video clips, like Channel Awesome aka ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com. In fact, the whole war at protecting Intellectual
Property seems to be extreme, as Intellectual Property might not necessarily be
a tangible good like a book or a CD, but could also reside in the form of a
teacher simply educating its students. Thus, Intellectual Property is just the
sharing of ideas. One way or another, it’s going to influence somebody.
Then again,
licenses like the Creative Commons, which allow the use of another’s work under
the condition that it isn’t for commercial use, is not infallible. Artists
still need a career and should be compensated for their efforts, because
otherwise, licenses like the Creative Commons could erode copyright laws and potentially
discourage artists from publishing. Heck, I want to make something and publish
it some day and it would discourage me greatly if I know I can’t make a career
out of it. This could possibly lead to unemployment and the stagnation of
culture if jobs are nowhere to be found in media and nobody is churning out
anything new. This kind of controversy has lead lobbyists to try and protect
the artist and ensure compensation, however, their recent attempts to
circumvent this issue have shown their willingness to take extreme measures.
In
addition, there are several people who copy and paste ‘Creative Commons’ and
‘Fair Use’ and other such jargon under the belief that it will protect them
from any backlash. This is a problem in itself because a person can copy and
paste any passage that looks law-related to protect their rights, especially if
said passage has become viral. Chances are that person didn’t truly understand
or research the meaning behind such jargon. The problem is that person did not
take any discipline to earn the knowledge and just placed it there, and :POOF:
E Pluribus Unum, Carpe Diem, Corpus Delicti, I have placed a bunch of Latin
phrases and therefore I can upload bootleg copies of Napoleon Dynamite.
Protecting the
rights of Intellectual Property, Copyright laws, and free distribution of ideas
is a very nuanced issue, which ever side you’re on, there’s going to be
consequences. Therefore, I think it’s best that lobbyists for copyright laws
and supporters of Creative Commons to work together and meet some sort of
middle ground.
