Every time I think about Intellectual Property (which I have to admit isn’t that much) I think about iTunes. iTunes really frustrates me sometimes. I buy songs on iTunes instead of illegal downloading them (kudos for Marisa!) but then I can’t do anything with them, other than listen to them on iTunes or my iPod. It makes me irritated that I can only burn the same song onto a CD seven different times. I bought the song, I paid money for the song, why can’t I have control over my song now? What if I want to make a ringtone, or edit it to use for a compilation that I am making, or want to cut it short for a dance recital (I don’t dance by the way). If I want to do any of those things, that’s too bad. I will listen to my song on my seven CD’s or my iPod or my iTunes… but only in the format that it was given to me in. Talk about killing creativity.
Lessig had some very good points in his lecture about Intellectual Property and the Creative Commons. If we keep copyrighting every word that comes out of someone’s mouth what will happen to creativity? Will all artwork be made on microsoft paint, because lord knows you can’t duplicate something that rigid program. I think of all the wonderful things that have been developed after being influence by other amazing, or not so amazing, works. It seems like every play/movie/story/etc can be tied in some way to something Shakespeare wrote… I mean let’s face it, what didn’t he write about. So if we consider his works copyrighted and that they can’t be used to build upon for future plays/movies/books/ect then what would anyone write about? Could anything be published? I’m using sarcasm, surely someone else has used sarcasm in the past that can sue me. Let’s ask turnitin.com.
All joking aside, I really love the concept of Creative Commons. I think it embraces using creative, which has been on a decline in my opinion over the past few years. The idea that we don’t have to dream up our own perfectly unique masterpieces and can instead embrace our history is a wonderful lesson. When we watched The PBS special, one of the complaints was that the internet makes people not creative, and lets them cheat. But what if instead of cheating, getting ideas from other people was considered expansion of art? I find something strangely beautiful about that. I love the idea of artists sharing for the sake of art, or having open source for the sake of truly benefiting the society in which uses the technology. Open Source and Creative Commons in my opinion sets a good example of unity, and caring about the welfare of others in our society. I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to embrace that.
