WK 1 Copyright Issues-information overload

Bill Harris’s Blog:

Week 1: Reading Entry

I thought I knew a little something about Copyright until I went through the lessons on Copyright. I then found I knew little about copyright and learn the something. I had seen the “What the Heck is Copyright” before and had a good understanding of its application or so I thought. I had assumed that copyright was there to protect the copyright owner from having his or her intellectual property stolen from them by denial of proceeds due them. In fact as Peter Jaszi says, Copyright exist for one purpose: “to promote the progress of science and useful arts”.  He further goes on to say, which makes perfect sense, that Art doesn’t come from nowhere. Cultural progress depends on the ability of artists to make reasonable use of preexisting material and that includes copyrighted material”. How obvious is that! It reminds me of another saying, “There is nothing new under the sun”.

As I see it, a study of music genres, reveals various genres merging with others from different time periods to create a “new” genre, only to have to revert to another at another time period. Its as though in order to avoid copyright infringement a “mix” of genres are created to create something so called “original”. Adding a sesame seed bun, special sauce, a different type of lettuce, and cooked another way than fried does change what it is…it’s still a burger. But without the original you can’t have the modifications that some people may want.

Even though Mr. Jaszi’s point is well taken, I can’t help but feel that we here in the United States make such a big thing over copyright to protect our money and not the art. Other countries as “Copyright issues, part 1 stresses seem to consider the arts more than the profit made. I believe in one scene a young music producer said that musicians were more interested in getting their popularity up by having their music mixed and played at parties and clubs so they could perform in concerts and make real money.

I now see that copyright does in fact support and protect the Arts (in legal terms) by allowing the use of “somebody else’s copyrighted music, pictures or words without paying or asking permission as long as it benefits society more than it hurts the copyright holder.”

Cartoon obtained from: http://www.michaelgaigg.com/blog/tag/copying/

My Response:

Bill,

The point you made about the different countries views on the copyright issue was spot on. I believe that here in America everything is about the money. We wouldn’t have the variety of burgers if someone didn’t think of the concept of two buns with some ground beef in the middle. On the music side I wonder if any church choir would be able to sing a song before the preacher preached his sermon. In the long run if the artist can make a living off of what he or she does is what we should strive for.

Copyright issues, coupled with the economy and people’s beliefs of what should be shared are reaching all time highs. In Good Copy Bad Copy, the part-time DJ mixed three genres of music from different eras all in the span of thirty seconds! Gone are the days of listening to your favorite songs on the radio and saving them on your cassette tape. “We have been almost forced to do it,” stated the DJ named Girl Talk. Young people in the UK also feel that way.

Dr. Lawrence Ferrara of NYU stated that the technique called sampling has taken over the market.

It was also interesting to see what is not covered internationally. In Sweden, American songs that come over the airways are fair game to their music pirates and they could care less. They challenged the industry by asking where should they send the invoice.

In Brazil, the methods they use to change the background of the song or bass line would make most musicians cringe even though the public enjoys it.

My personal opinion from being around a few musicians is that this is how they eat. When I thought about, I wouldn’t want anyone to take my lesson plan for class, change a few words and make a living off of my work.

Isn’t it interesting that one video started off asking for a donation stating that it was not free?