Copyright RESERVES culture for an Elite.

I just want to add on top of what Mr Ferguson was saying about, “I think most people are going to be mediocre. That’s just sort of the law of population.”

I want to add:
…moreover, that Culture is something that you “Do”, not something that you just watch. The people’s culture is just that – the people’s culture. Culture is everybody’s, because it was co-authored and developed incrementally by all of humanity over thousands upon thousands of years and is a shared-possession of all of humanity. Human culture & human knowledge is a COMMONs. It is no-one’s property. And it is certainly not reserved for an elite.

Right now, Copyright RESERVES culture for an Elite.. You MUST be able to draw well and draw “originals”, (but not everybody can draw originals, we still use tracing paper), OR, you MUST be rich, otherwise you can’t pay the royalty fees to create derivatives (but most of us are not rich)…

Even if I cannot draw or I cannot compose music, I can still use digital tools to express myself. (cut & paste culture). If we reverted copyright back to the way it used to which ALLOWED the free creation of derivative works, it will give the people’s culture back to the people. Everyone can create and everyone can express themselves not just the rich and not just the artists who have trained to create “originals”.

“Did you know that people don’t want to just watch their Star Wars story, they actually want to tell their OWN Star Wars Story?
But copyright means they can’t. Because they are not rich enough. (and then even the rich ones need to have George Lucas’ permissions — i.e. a No.)”

(this is free culture in a nutshell, started by Lawrence Lessig but now it has expanded past his ideas.)

See this excellent excellent post by the Institute of IP & Social Justice:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115958040764540124496/posts/Zb1k9feAmCP
It explains why the fear of mediocrity is irrelevant.

Are all new things a mash-up of what came before? A Q&A with Kirby Ferguson

 

Also see How are Artists supposed to turn a profit if they cannot build on work that has been made?

“…Because as I listen to us lawyers who insist…
‘Nothing has changed. The same rules apply. It’s the pirates who are the deviants.
It’s the pirates who need to be reformed!’ I recognize that it is WE who are the ones who are insane.”

• Lawrence Lessig (founder of Creative Commons)

“But such a system of coercion, they never work. Much like with communism or the planned economy, copyright is not robust – just teaching “most” people to fall in line doesn’t suffice. 10% dissenters – even 5% – will break the entire model. In order to fix that, first “fix” human nature. China is a case study here. They’ve invested billions in attempted information control. Their conclusion has been the same – online you can be a dissident or a filesharer as much as you like. Because the alternative is to shut down the internet region-wide which would in effect break their economy. If you want, in real effects, copyright to last for even one year in the non-commercial sense, then the minimum requirement is for you to start by abolishing the internet and any other form of mass communications medium. Any restrictions you’d require to enforce non-commercial copying will have to be strict enough the communications medium simply won’t work anymore. That’s how the real world works. Much like the church or the Soviets you can rail against technological progress and human nature as much as you want (via censorship), but in the end you will either adapt – or find yourself overrun.” See Lessig’s TED talk in 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icwhAGlkDS8&feature=plcp&context=C43aa314VDvjVQa1PpcFOkrPJEdRPrj0SYbbAqYpRW5nvvMlYBA7c= Lawrence Lessig (founder of Creative Commons)

“Copyright” – i.e. deciding who can and cannot disseminate information is not only unsupported by human nature, human nature actively opposes it. Indeed we have had several million years of evolution telling us that it is a Bad Thing(TM) to not disseminate information we’ve come across. If some information is interesting, people will spread it. You do not, can not, and never will have control over information you release where many people can see it. Not while humans remain human. Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons