If you haven’t watched/listened to Lawerence Lessig, here is a presentation that is worth your time.
http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/free_culture.swf (Flash)
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/policy/2002/08/15/lessig.html (HTML)
The presentation can be summed up in the refrain of a song that he wrote for the presentation.
Creativity and innovation always builds on the past.
The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it.
Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past.
Ours is less and less a free society.
This is a presentation about copyright and how its evolution in our country can stifle creativity. He starts with the writings of Shakespeare and goes all the way to present day copyright law.
Most people don’t realize that the founding fathers thought copyright should last 14 years. Ideas from existing works could be taken and built upon (derivative works) without legal ramifications. Now copyright protection lasts almost 100 years and it’s illegal to read many books outloud in public.
The most compelling part of the presentation deals with Walt Disney and how he took stories that were out of copyright (older works) or parodies and created animated movies. Think of shows like Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Pinnochio and Sleeping Beauty. All of these stories were derivative works. They were stories that already existed. Many were fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm. Even Mickey Mouse was parrotted after Steamboat Bill in the same year that Steamboat Bill was released in theaters. Consider the lead character in Pirates of the Caribbean – Jack Sparrow. If someone were to create a parody animated figure of Captain Jack and release a film in 2007 starring that parody character, they would be sued into oblivion. This very practice (parodying, not suing) made Disney the empire that it is today.
The most powerful slide about the current state of copyright:
“No one can do to the Disney Corporation what Walt Disney did to the Brothers Grimm.”
Lessig goes on to talk about how copyright is blocking all kinds of innovative “fair use” with examples from Aibo to a couple of seconds of Homer Simpson in the background of an educational film. This presentation is an eye-opener about the current “police” state of copyright law in America. It is worth a listen.