Piracy, Copyright And You
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 23, 2007 - 13:35
The current copyright system is the subject of intense debate among creators, consumers, technology companies and corporate copyright holders. Here's an interesting article on the subject from Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Publishing that makes the excellent point that the current system is tilted to the few have-a-lots and that "obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy." There are also reports that at least one of the major record corporations is considering releasing music unrestricted in the MP3 format.
Considering that webcomics are essentially the comics-equivalent of unrestricted MP3 files, I suppose comics are a little bit ahead of the curve here. Although comic book companies have not jumped in with both feet, newspaper syndicates largely have and many major creators have already embraced the obscurity is worse than free perspective of O'Reilly.
I'm going to use this post as an excuse to link to a great roundtable interview on comics and copyright that Comixpedia previously published in 2005. Still very relevant if you missed it the first time.
Any ideas about French copyright laws?
by nobody - 05/07/2007 - 11:35
Here I am with this paper to write on webcomics, and as I sit in my parisian room I wonder about French legal systems and online protection... Anyone have a clue?
"The current system ..."
by scarfman - 01/24/2007 - 11:37
"The current system is tilted to the few have-a-lots" is an oversimplification of the status quo, I think. The system isn't meant to tilted the way of the have-a-lots, they just have better lobbyists, meaning any at all.
U.S. copyright law was conceived so that inventors would benefit from their ideas instead of hiding their inventions in their barns to keep their ideas from being stolen; but also so that eventually those ideas would proceed to the public domain where they belong. The modern innovations in intellectual property law driven by coporate IP owners, such as the Bono Bill, have provided for continuation of any existing copyright in, in effect, perpetuity, denying it to the public domain which is exactly what IP law was conceived to prevent.
A tangent from the issues in O'Reilly's piece, but it's a sore point with me.
Paul Gadzikowski, paul@arthurkingoftimeandspace.com
Arthur, King of Time and Space New cartoons daily
Paul Gadzikowski, paul@arthurkingoftimeandspace.com
Arthur, King of Time and Space New cartoons daily