Copyright law, I must say that this is a subject that I have studied to varying degrees for years, and is a subject that has been a bit of a hot topic for the last 15 years. I have mixed emotions over it as both a consumer and creator of content over my lifetime. On one had I see a definite need for copyright law and the protections it provides. On the other hand I think that the existing laws take things to an extreme and are vastly overblown. Fair use allows for a lot of freedoms, freedoms which I myself have taken advantage of throughout the EMDT program. Yet I don’t feel that fair use goes far enough. I feel that while the protections for content creators that the laws provide are necessary, I feel as though they go to far. Patent laws don’t extend patent protection for life + 70 years, where would the world be if that were the case? Why should copyright law extend so far? I also thing that copyright laws need to be amended to greater flexibility with regards to fair use, and to make the repurposing of content more available to the masses. The idea of having to pay someone $15,000 in licensing fees for footage of someone singing a single verse of “Happy Birthday” in historic film footage, it beyond ridiculous. I also applaud content creators who have shared their works on Creative Commons. While I have not shared any of my content on there, I admire those who do and hope to some day do the same with many of my own works.
Thanks for reading,
Karl Peterson
Thanks for sharing Karl.
ReplyDeleteAny particular reason why you haven't yet licensed your work through Creative Commons? The more people/artists using/contributing to the resource, the more valuable/deeper it will become!