Creative Commons: It Begins

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.