The Public Domain (Book Review)
Professor James Boyle is Chairman of the Board of Creative Commons and a recognised authority in the fight to bring some sense back to the copyright, patent and trademark laws which seem to have drifted over to Oz in recent years. The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind, also available as a Creative Commons licensed PDF download, is Boyle’s wider discussion of Intellectual Property Rights, how we got here and where we are right now.
The book begins with a history of copyright and moves into case studies including the post-Katrina mashup George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People that came from the work of Ray Charles who in turn pulled his own work from recognised gospel singers of his time. The book then progresses to solutions and avenues that hack the current laws including Creative Commons and suggestions about changes that could improve the balance between copyright ownership and our social need to share and mash-up ideas in our general life.
Boyle’s The Public Domain is a well written and hard to put down must read, particularly applicable for people in web related industries. Copyright sits in the room with us on so many creative occasions that we have to recognise it’s importance and play catch-up about our ideas of fair-use, commons licensing and the fine line of potential plagiarism claims (both against ourselves and for work done on behalf of clients). With the recent changes over the last five years, do you feel confident that you know what consitutes infringement? For example, how many people do you know who think Creative Commons is free as in beer? As a business you need to know what free means in which context.
As a writer and as the partner of a contemporary artist it’s obvious that creation doesn’t come from the ether around us. We build culture on the ideas around us and mash-up is the method that our madness uses to prevail with good literature, fine art and social expression. Boyle spends a long time hammering this point – nothing, or next to nothing, is purely original. Unfortunately the copyright laws don’t recognise this cultural need and currently provides too much protection. Boyle points out that copyright should provide enough protection to induce creativity and cultural growth, while freeing it all up as that protection comes to an end. Is death plus 70 years really benefiting the author?
I understand the perspective of authors such as Harlan Ellison who demand to be paid for their hard work, and that is a truth we can’t deny. Our artists, writers, and God forbid even our web designers need a fair reward for their work. Information is not free as in beer, and in this context never should be unless it meets stringent criteria – the author requires it, or a reasonable period of time has elapsed in which the author has had time to receive the benefit of copyright. But there needs to be a balance that isn’t struck by placing copyright protections for exceedingly long periods of time onto works that could benefit society through the public domain. And that balance must have fairness built into it’s core instead of being fixed to the high end of town not wanting to relinquish Mickey Mouse into the public domain, for example. Or because some company wants to own a genome sequence or the double click or a business process. At that point it just becomes stupidity for greed.
The major trouble we have with copyright law as it stands, in my simplistic view, are twofold. And I might be wrong, so fill me in if you disagree. First, lobbyists from large organisations like Disney can buy senator’s votes and keep pushing copyright extension forever – because they can. Second, the general public aren’t really aware of copyright law or their relationship to it or it’s cultural importance in our society when it applies to the advancement of science or our ability to just do what humans do – share stuff. When you get sued for putting a video clip on YouTube of your 2 year old dancing to a copyrighted song, or when your 12 year old or your 80 year old grandmother is sued for downloading pirated music – SOMETHING is wrong. If the movie industry had won their original case against the VCR manufacturers we wouldn’t have the DVD market that makes them a gazillion dollars today. It’s not copyright that should have changed, it’s our business models.
Cory Doctorow wrote a very good review of Boyle’s The Public Domain that is a little less ranty, you might get a lot out of reading it. But I’d highly recommend this book not only as a damn good read but also as vital industry knowledge for web designers and developers. And for society at large, for that matter. IP (Intellectual Property) Law is critical to how we move forward as a society. The trick is in achieving IP without hurting either the author or society’s greater interests.
And, sorry for the swearing but, for fuck sake stop giving out protection for the double click, for business processes and friggen genomes! Assholes. That’s where politicians just make themselves into stupid pricks that make all our lives harder. Sanity, please…
