Let's Get Creative
Whenever the issue of copyright is brought up, especially with all the changes in the digital age, I'm always brought to remember that copyright is a pretty new idea in human history. Before the last few hundred years or so (if memory serves me) everything was free of copyright. Most of Shakespeare's plays relied heavily on the use of sources for plot lines, which is something that I was somewhat surprised by when I found out, because I assumed the greatest playwright in history would have been the sole creator of all his work. But it's interesting to consider the fact that back then everything created was part of public domain. In many ways, of course, current copyright laws protect the creators of whatever is copywritten, but sometimes they can also heavily restrict the use of pretty much anything. I found it interesting that in the creative commons video that the bass player just added things to the White Stripes album without prior consent. I'm not that surprised that Jack White consented to the album and everything, but if it were me, and someone took a record that I had spent so much time writing and recording, taking months to get everything to sound the way I want it, and someone took my recordings and added stuff over the top of them and called it their own, I would file a cease and desist order. But to get to the reason why the story is relayed, if consent is given it's a completely different matter (Again, if it were me, if a person asked permission to use my recordings first, I would be much more willing to see what they had in mind). I do think consent should be able to be given by a simple "Is it ok if I do this?" and cutting down on red tape and legal jargon. But I think to keep everything in the clear, consent should be given BEFORE posting things online so that as many people as possible can hear them.
When it comes to mp3's on blogs, again I just think it's a matter of getting consent beforehand. The artists and bands so popular that they are impossible to get a hold of except by way of managers or what have you are groups that wouldn't appear on music blogs anyways, becase everyone already knows them. Since music blogs are for lesser known bands that are easy to get ahold of by email (and everyone is much easier to get in contact with in the digital age, of course), it shouldn't be much of an issue to get consent for posting or remixing or mashing up songs before posting them for the world to see. Paying for music as opposed to downloading it is a whole issue unto itself, and it looks like we'll be talking about that next week .
In the case of something like Wikipedia, which is designed to be a communal work, I think any claims to copyright should be negated for use within Wikipedia and similar programs. Especially when it comes to Wikipedia, because it's such a massive collective of people that really have little contact with one another, aside from moderators or people who spend a lot of time on the site. It's almost impossible to know who you're collaborating with, so any claims to copyright are completely unrealistic.
That said, I like the idea of the Creative Commons CC copyright. It seems like a good way to allow more free access of creative property should you choose to allow it. I was wondering if there are certain terms built in the CC license or if it's something that the creator is able to determine him or herself. In my mind, the ideal function of all these copyright laws is to protect people who don't want their intellectual property used in a way they don't want it to be while allowing a fairly easy way to waive those protections if they want to allow a little more free use of their ideas. It seems like the CC is a good step towards that.