On Thu, 8 Jul 1999, Anki Toner wrote:
[steev said:]
>> 5. Therefore most people on this list, it is reasonable to assume, would
>> favor changes to copyright law, if not society's overall attitude toward
>> intellectual property.
>
>That is what I thought when I joined the list. Now I wonder which side
>some of you are on. And about society's overall attitude, it might be
>more open than you'd think. Of course, I cannot speak for your
>neighbourhood, but I look around me and I do not see too many people
>respecting copyrights, or being aware of what intellectual property is.
>
>This is a different debate, though, and it should begin by trying to
>define what "society" are we talking about: People that buy less than 10
>CDs a year but record on cassette or CDr all their neighbours' and have
>huge collections of films videotaped from TV? That's the majority here,
>but of course they never think about copyright, about copyright laws or
>about being doing anything illegal. Traditional musicians who, apart
>from (again) having hundresd of illegal tapes of their heroes (and
>what's worse, even bootlegs!), spend years trying to copy, note by note,
>their playing? Again, these are majority (between musicians). What
>society, then? Anyone interested in debating this point?
There's not much to argue, i think we're in agreement. let me just
explain that my original use of the word "society" referred not to who
you're talking about. By society i guess i meant mostly "the powers that
be" or "the authorities", however fuzzy those phrases might also be.
Some of your examples are some of my favorite stories to tell as well.
It illustrates just how counterintuitive the concept of intellectual
property is. It really is. Some are trying to teach, to ingrain, a sense
of respect for copyright, but it's very difficult. People don't naturally
feel they're doing any harm by dubbing a video or whatever.
However, it's not quite that cut and dried. What i'm also really
interested in are some of the inconsistent beliefs people have. like those
musicans you mention, who copy the style of their idols, then write some
imitative song that they claim is "original", that they say is their
creation. The very notion of authorship, or the creative genius inspired
only by his Muse to spring another masterpiece from his forehead. These
are some cherished and widespread ideas to overturn.
smh
Steev Hise, Automagickal Adept
steevAThise.org http://www.cyborganic.com/people/steev
recycled art site: http://www.detritus.net
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- M. G. (full name withheld to protect the guilty)
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