Exclusive rights to do what? At the end of the play, we have this concept that we these days call "intellectual property", but it's really a very fundamentally problematic concept. What's owned -- the ideas? Whatever idea you've got, it's likely someone else had it first. How they're arraned? That could work, but then what happens when we re-arrange them in our own minds -- are we in violation? How about if we tell other people? How about if we blog it? How about if we blog it on a blog that has advertisements?
Put another way: None of this matters without consumers, and what are consumers doing with the work? Sousa & Lessig were arguing for what we could term "creative consumption" -- or what I've already called "interpretive performance." For Sousa, it was the performance of the works in a personal setting. (Presumably that would use sheet music that he got a cut from, but there's no implication that he's expecting payment by performance.) Any musician can tell you that you learn things about the piece from performing it, and that furthermore the great musicians make a piece their own. One could argue -- I don't know if Lessig goes this far -- that remixing in the way he illustrated is simply an interpretive performance. It's been frequently argued in recent years that there are many things you don't really understand through one modaility. You understand a work differently if you read it, perform it, hear it, sing it, play it on a mandolin. There's a related contention that it doesn't make sense to think of a work without an audience (none of this matters without consumers). I would argue that every time you read a book or listen to a song, you are essentially re-writing it in your head. But there are some media for which that requires less work than others. If I regard creative interpretation as a good thing *for people* -- and I do -- then I'm going to have a hard time supporting anything that stifles that type of interpretation. And I think this idea of "owning" a work as though it's something that gets smaller (instead of bigger) when you divide it is inherently caustic with regard to the concept of creative interpretation. Or interpretive creation, for that matter. It places a constraint on the things you can publicly create. Maybe such a constraint is necessary to encourage creativity (though I think that's open to question), but even "the founders" understood there to be a necessary balance. Jefferson famously believed that it was critically necessary for IP protections to have a lifespan that would allow them to come into the public domain within the life of a person. On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 12:56 PM, Dave Henn <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hmmm. An interesting statement. If an author has exclusive rights to > his/her work, that precludes use of the work absent that author's > permission, except under certain circumstances (a la Fair Use > defense). If the author will only grant permission in exchange for > money, then the exclusive right to the work includes at least the > right to make money from the work. > > Are you saying that derivative works, which are subject to the rights > of the author of the original work, shouldn't need permission grants? > If an author will not grant permission for another to use his/her > work, it would seem that another would not have a right to make money > from it. > > > On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 1:43 PM, Janice Carello > <[email protected]> wrote: > > There is a difference, though, between a creator's exclusive rights to > his > > or her creation and a creator's exclusive right to make money from his or > > her creation. > > > > On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 1:13 PM, Dave Henn <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > >> Lessig does make sense. I'm curious as to whether he created the title > >> that says "the law is strangling creativity" since that is extreme and > >> seems to go against some of the premises of his talk. As he says, it's > >> extremism that's the real problem, and the application of the law to > >> developing technologies without recognizing that some applications > >> don't make sense. The Creative Commons movement that he "didn't talk > >> about" is promising, to be sure. Just remember that the Founders > >> thought IP was important enough to put it in the Constitution, Article > >> I, Section 8: > >> "Section. 8. > >> > >> The Congress shall have Power ... > >> > >> To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for > >> limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their > >> respective Writings and Discoveries;" > >> <http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html> > >> > >> Yes, some aspects of the law have gone overboard. But we don't want to > >> destroy creators' rights to their creations. Balance and moderation. > >> Good things to seek in many venues. > >> > >> > >> > >> On Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 4:11 PM, Janice Carello < > [email protected]> > >> wrote: > >> > Thanks, Craig. This is great. > >> > > >> > What Lessig says about youth thinking differently, about culture, > about > >> > creativity, and about criminalization resonates with me, particularly > in > >> > terms of teaching writing. I am going to share this link with my > >> > colleagues. > >> > > >> > > >> > On Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 11:27 AM, delancey <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> >> > >> >> I think Lessig's latest TED lecture is spot on: > >> >> > >> >> > >> >> > >> >> > http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strangling_creativity.html > >> >> > >> >> cd > >> >> > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > -- > >> > Janice > >> > > >> > > > >> > > >> > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Dave Henn > >> [email protected] > >> > > > > > > > > -- > > Janice > > > > > > > > > > > -- > Dave Henn > [email protected] > > > > -- eric scoles ([email protected]) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. 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