[d@DCC] Creativity and cultural policy (Was: Re: [CPI-UA] Cross

[Russell McOrmond]

On Mon, 5 Apr 2004, Neil Leyton wrote:

> I would have to second this comment by Wallace. I don't see downloading 
> as a copyright infringement, and I don't think it becomes a crime just 
> because there is legislation against it. Call me an anarchist : )

  I would have thought the marketing side of it for you would be similar 
to me.   If all music was legally shared, not just those like you who have 
used a Creative Commons license, that means that a marketing advantage you 
have is wiped away.

  I believe that audiences who enjoy P2P should become part of the street 
teams and marketing force of labels like Fading Ways Music instead of 
"sharing" the latest mainstream promoted "pop".


> Again, I second Wallace's take on this. It's not so much that we're 
> allowing it to become socially acceptable; it's that the limits of what 
> is now socially acceptable have been so pushed up against the wall that 
> it's been cut to the ridiculous.


  I worry that things will swing too far the other direction as a result 
of the lobbying of non-creators.   I worry that as a response to the 
nonsense of non-creator copyright holders (big labels, employers, heirs) 
that it will be creators and creativity that will lose out yet again.

  I understand the frustration that people have with the socially
unacceptable demands of non-creator copyright holders and other
intermediaries, but believe we need to remember and protect creators and
creativity from this as well as from the resulting backlash.

> Socially we can't even talk openly about politics in north american
> anymore.... it's not socially acceptable. Even for life-long friends...  
> (personal sad story there, won't bore you with it).

  What rights you don't exercise you lose.  I believe that there is a 
general apathy in North America and it is not powerful external forces 
that cause the problem you express, but our fellow "citizens" (who feel 
fine being called "consumers").

  This forum and a whole host of other ones I host or otherwise
participate in are an example of exercising our rights to political free
speech.  We are holding the government to account, and I hope we can even
get more people to think of the Sheila Copps/Heritage Canada Private
Copying scandal as the next one to focus on now that the sponsorship
scandal is old news.

-- 
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 "Make it legal: don't litigate, use creative licensing" campaign.
 A modern answer to P2P: http://www.flora.ca/makelegal200403.shtml
 Canadian File-sharing Legal Information Network http://www.canfli.org/

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