The Public Domain is the rule, copyright protection is the exception. Since copyright protection is granted only with respect to original forms of expression, the vast majority of data, information and ideas produced worldwide at any given time belongs to the Public Domain. In addition to information that is not eligible for protection, the Public Domain is enlarged every year by works whose term of protection expires. The combined application of the requirements for protection and the limited duration of the copyright protection contribute to the wealth of the Public Domain so as to ensure access to our shared culture and knowledge.
Read it. Sign it. Talk about it.
Cheers.
P. S.Thanks for the comic link, Fred!
P. P. S. If you want to get really fucked up squirrely ass mad about all this corporate ownership of the entire fucking world bullshit be sure to drop by Michael Geist’s blog where he looks at the secret ACTA negotiations that start today in Mexico where this agreement is being designed to extend far beyond counterfeiting and how it will reshape domestic law in many countries, including Canada.
There’s been a lot of bullshit happening in Canada as the Harper government does its best to look pretty whilst wearing the brown lipstick of the U.S. media industry. You can find out more about the pitiful shenanigans of the music industry, blatantly stacking town hall meetings to discuss copyright reform, and the suppression of alternative voices at these so called “open and public discussions”, on other blogs like Michael Geist and Jill Golick or P2P.net and BoingBoing. I’ve ranted and raved about it before - and doubtless will again - but right now it’s the weekend and I’m lazy and I’m gonna go lie down and read a cheap mystery novel.
In the meantime, here’s a short video of Prof. Lawrence Lessig giving a talk this past February at the New York Public Library (along with Steven Johnson and Shepard Fairey) addressing the very real concerns that our copyright laws are being hijacked by dying media industries to support a failed and archaic business model and in those efforts to stem the inevitable tide of technological and cultural progress they are stealing our voices, stealing our right to speak and hear about our world.
Will copyright laws stifle creativity? If the major media companies are allow to corrupt our elected officils and subvert our democratic processes to assert their right to define what culture is - as in: whatever they sell us and nothing else - then Yes the laws of copyright are a threat to creativity and freedom of speech as well as freedom of thought.
Make noise. Kick these fuckers in the nuts.
Cheers.
P. S. Actually the mystery novel is not cheap, it’s Dashiel Hammett’s classic “The Big Knockover” - in case you were wondering.
Hey! It’s Tuesday! Let’s blog about important shit instead of posting video clips of cute puppies juggling elephant poo. Actually, that sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it? I’ll go search for that as soon as I’m done here.
In the meantime, here’s a talk given by James Boyle at the RSA which goes hand-in-hand with some of the presentations given by Lawrence Lessig on the same theme: Intellectual property laws have a significant impact on many important areas of human endeavour, including scientific innovation, digital creativity, cultural access and free speech..
If you must skip ahead through the talk please be sure to jump in at the 16 minute mark. That’s where the crux of Boyle’s observations come to a head and deserve to be heard by everyone.
The power of the media corporations lobbying efforts are concerned only with their self-interested quest for short term profits and control over the marketplace - unfortunately, for all concerned, the marketplace of intellectual property is not a mere physical space stacked with physical goods for sale - it exists in our minds and in our perceptions of the world around us and in our ability to speak to each other about our world and our lives.
The changes to copyright law and the subsequent corruption of the democratic process by these lobbying efforts serve to undermine our culture and our most basic human freedoms by the steady erosion of the public domain.
We live in an information age and we need to understand and respond to the laws which are being formed with respect to that information. It’s not just the business of the media corporations - it’s your business too.
ACTA is an international agreement that aims to target piracy and counterfeiting globally. The degree of secrecy surrounding the negotiations is astonishing. Many institutions, the press and various individuals have requested that the participating countries provide an insight into their plans, but none have succeeded thus far.
It almost seems they are actively blocking the public from having their say, while in contrast they continue to receive input from anti-piracy lobbyists such as the RIAA and MPAA. However, as time progresses more details about ACTA become public, largely thanks to Wikileaks.
Once again large media corporations are designing legislation outside of democratic discourse which directly affects your life.
