QuestionCopyright.org -- Interviews, Chicago 2006

Random interviews of people on the street about the history and purpose of copyright law, as well as their feelings about file sharing. All interviewees have given permission to put their responses in the public domain.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• copyright

[A0u]

Creative Commons still has its own limitations - it's not the same as public domain.

I agree that copyright is useful to individual seeking to maintain full creative control over his/her works, but in the grand scheme of things, it is better for humanity as a whole if everyone is allowed a chance to build upon those works and exercise there own creativity - because that's how culture grows, right?

[Zaether]

Some people really needs to learn the difference between copying and stealing.

[EltonJThe]

@Xenodamus 48 years is too long. 14 years corporate should be the maximum.

[Xenodamus]

I think copyrights should be limited to the lifetime of an author. Once the author dies, then it should be placed under a limited rights reserved arrangement, such as the Creative Commons License, with only the author's estate being able to profit from the original and derivative works for 16 years.

Corporations should have a fixed limit of 48 years on original works with no renewals (derivatives can still be copyrighted) + 16 years of limited rights reserved.

How does that sound?

[Zorroness]

As a creator of "Intellectual Property" myself, I completely disagree with you. I create works in an attempt to make the world a slightly richer place then it was before I set off. The greatest protection for my works is having them stored on as many hard drives as possible, and being accessible to people all over the world.

[lilomar2525]

And this video serves to show one thing, how incredibly ignorant the "man-on-the-street" is about copyright. How can we change it if people don't even know what it really is?

[Dogger747]

Once you become a creator of Intellectual Property, all of this becomes far more important. A musician loves the sounds. A poet loves the music of words. A scientist lives in the breakthrough moment when new ideas are born.

Copyright does a lot more than protect 'corporations' it protects the creations of folks who MAKE things, rather than just download and use them....

(And if you want to share we've got Creative Commons)

[bmtimv]

ohh right its to protect the artist.. i mean corporation that makes it..

[teoteous]

We know it's wrong but many of us don't care. Ah, the hypocrisy...