Is it possible to have a original idea anymore?
In regards to “intellectual property” and the Internet, I agree with Barlow that we will have to “develop an entirely new set of methods as befits this entirely new set of circumstances.” “Intellectual property law cannot be patched, retrofitted, or expanded to contain digitized expression” (Barlow). It’s hard to say what “intellectual Property” means when you are participating in collaborative work online, such as what we did on Wikipedia. Theoretically, the minute you write something down it is yours, you own it. But when working in a collaborative setting when people are constantly changing, adding to, deleting, and/or editing your work online does it then who owns that work? I am an amateur photographer and there I have certain photographs I won’t put online. I don’t want someone to take my image and change it into their own work. However, in the long run this decision may hurt me as a photographer. It is becoming more and more popular and common for photographers to put their profiles online so people can see their work to either buy it or decide if they want to use that photographer. The only way to try to deter people from taking your images is to splash text over your image stating “this image belongs to…” which can take away from the image and defeat the purpose of having it online for people to see.
I really like the idea of Creative Commons. I am now very curious to find out more about it. I really hope this is utilized more in the future. I think if the creator is willing to share their work with other people than it should be available for their use. I personally do not download music online, but I think it should be up to the artist, not the record label if the music is available online for free download.
Comments
Being a photographer, what would you feel about people using an image that you shot as a personal background? Are we worried about people taking our original images and ruining them or are we worried that they could do it better? I just wonder if taking a picture of the world isn't just ripping off mother nature from her copyright. I realize that is a large exagerration but just something I thought about as I read your post.
Posted by: Mills | April 5, 2007 02:32 PM
I think what you said about putting your name into your photographs raises an interesting point. At what point do you infringe on the art to protect yourself monetarily? All these issues of placing effective but non-restrictive copyrights kind of underscores the question of where exactly art ends and commerce begins, and vice versa.
Posted by: tcarr | April 7, 2007 01:56 PM
I think that you brought up a good point about how it should be the artist's decision on whether or not their songs should be available online for free downloading. However, I have to say that most of those artists use songs that were written by professional songwriters who work for the record label and therefore, those songs don't really belong to the artist. There are artists who write their own songs, but since they work for the record label, the record label is the one that calls the shots. Therefore, I'm not sure if that's something that will change in the future. Another comment that I would like to add about Wikipedia and "intellectual property" is that since people who write on Wikipedia know that their work may be changed or deleted, then there's really no problem with it. If authors don't want their work to be changed or deleted by other viewers, then they should write a magazine article or book. That way, no one has the right to change their words on paper.
Posted by: Natalya Goncharova | April 8, 2007 03:42 PM
As you stated that you are a photographer, you whole "way of living" is based off of what you believe is art. If you were to post something on line, and have someone else tear it apart I can understand where you are coming from dealing with "theft". However, if they choose to take your picture and toggle with it, maybe people will not like the "new and improved" picture. I understand that this would be a big step in your career because it goes both ways, as you stated. From your point of view I would be very interested in Creative Commons as well.
Posted by: Kelly | April 8, 2007 08:34 PM