Week 1 Comment 2 John's Blog

Johns FullSail Blog:

Thursday, June 2, 2011
Wk1: Good Copy Bad Copy
Though it was longer than I expected when I sat down to look at it, Good Copy Bad Copy was an interesting documentary. I t truly generated the most passionate responses I have had to date regarding Copyright; even from the standpoint of a creative professional.

I can’t help but wonder throughout the piece if the responses from those who infringe would be the same if it was their work. Honestly I kept thinking that the reason most were so cavalier about their efforts was because it was someone else’s.

I thought a lot of the Copyright myth #6 that says that an original work created from someone else's work belongs to me. When I watched the segments on GirlTalk and Tecno Brega, each seem to show some form of creative expression, but when I found myself trying to see things from their standpoint they point out the holes in that theory by, instead of pointing out the original recordings created and hanging their hat on that rationale; choosing to either point out others that have done it and not been penalizing (Tecno Brega/DangerMouse’s Gray Album) or saying that they aren’t hurting anyone and current laws are “inhibiting the flow of culture and Music” (GirlTalk)

On another note, as I watched the rest of the video I noticed that that most of the violators did not care much either because it wasn’t a crime in their country or because it wasn’t work from their country For example, The Nigerian Piracy trade did not care about pirating "foreign" movies because, unlike Nigerian producers, the foreign producers didn't come in to their shops so the were less likely to get arrested. In Sweden, the piracy, according to Pirate Bay, wasn’t illegal, though the work they shared wasn’t Swedish work.

Being a creative, I straddle the fence on creative freedom, but I don’t think that because you like what I do, you are automatically entitled to it without my permission because you are a consumer. Using that rationale, it won’t be around long because it is no longer profitable for the source of the work to bother producing it.

My Comments:

I think it is very interesting that people in other countries don't care if they steal other's work, as long as they can't get caught. I would've thought that there would be international laws that govern these people. It is a shame we can't all just have respect for other's hard work and make sure they get credit for it. I do remember, though, when music piracy was in the news so big, that there were artists that said they didn't care if people downloaded their music for free, because they weren't getting money from it anyway. I think a lot more time and effort needs to go into creating laws that are clear and concise, that protect the creator, only!