[LINK] Digital copyright: it's all wrong

[Kim Holburn]

On 2008/Jun/10, at 8:16 AM, Antony Barry wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>> From: info at caslon.com.au
>> Date: 10 June 2008 3:48:09 PM
>> To: link at mailman1.anu.edu.au
>> Subject: Re: [LINK] Digital copyright: it's all wrong
>>
>>
>>> Mmm,
>>>
>>> I started having problems with copyright when:
>>>
>>> a) Hollywood copyrighted classic English works of fiction (Bronte
>>> Sisters et alia) simply because they had done a film based on them.
>>
>> Except that of course Hollywood (or Bollywood) has not copyrighted
>> those works. It hasn't copyrighted the plots or the words in the
>> Bronte novels (or in Shakespeare, Milton, Plato, The Bible, Das
>> Kapital etc).
>>
>> The copyright instead relates to musical scores (original or
>> licensed), the performance of the score, the script, the succession
>> of images we call a cinematograph film etc
>>
>> That bundle of copyrights relates to the very considerable
>> investment required to make a succession of feature films.

It's a kind of circular argument.  People make an investment in a  
movie in order to make a profit because they know they have these  
copyrights and a bunch of people who earn their living helping them  
protect those copyrights.

Are you saying that movies wouldn't get made if copyright wasn't there  
protecting the companies who made the investment (and usually not the  
people who actually created the work)?

Perhaps we might get decent movies if we took the Hollywood industry  
out of the picture.  A succession of feature films?  Like say "Nutty  
Professor II - The Klumps (Uncensored Director's Cut)", "Jaws 3",  
"Superman 4" or "Son of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre".  Yeah, where  
would the world be without successions of films?

>> It also - and heaven forbid we should actually respect creativity -
>> relates to recognition of the creators ... the scriptwriter,
>> composer etc, not all of whom can/want to make a living busking or
>> as an academic

Hmm... tell that to the Tolkien trust or the A. A. Milne estate.

>> If we're going to denounce copyright, let's do so on an informed
>> basis rather than resorting to digital jingoism such as "it's all
>> wrong"

I don't know, it has a certain "je ne sais quoi" to it as a one liner.

--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request

Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961