Wired Interview with Copyright Comic Authors 31
An anonymous reader writes "Wired has an interesting interview with the authors of a recent book about comics, fair use and the permissions culture. There is also a gallery of some of the most interesting pages from the comic. According to the interview, their next project is going to be on the history of musical borrowing and the way law has affected it. 'Picture a conversation between Bach, Robert Johnson and John Lennon, in comic book form.' Now *that* would be 'Strange Fruit,' indeed."
Re:Oh, what the hell... (Score:1, Offtopic)
"Third, he wrotte [slashdot.org]!"
Previous postter's comments reproduced in the spiritt of fair use, and exemptted from copyrightt prottection under the parody excepttion.
Strange Comparison (Score:5, Informative)
I doubt that Bach and Lennon would lynch Johnson, though lynching Black Americans is what "Strange Fruit" is about [pbs.org].
Strange Fruit (Score:4, Informative)
Holiday's phrasing was so unique that every song is a treat, but 'Strange Fruit' was, perhaps, the song for which she is best known.
It was so much simpler (Score:2, Funny)
Eeeveryone would be happy and no-one would get hurt.
Re:It was so much simpler (Score:2, Funny)
Re:It was so much simpler (Score:2)
Apart from the folks who wrote Don't Copy That Floppy.
Link for those as-yet unaffected by... this thing. [wikipedia.org]
Sure Beats... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sure Beats... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Sure Beats... (Score:1)
Irony (Score:4, Informative)
The comic does make a good point, though. The copyright laws (worldwide, not just in the US) are seriously fucked up if corporations are demanding thousands of dollars just because somebody's movie-theme ringtone can be heard in the background of a documentary.
Re:Irony (Score:2, Funny)
Wow, I came to click "reply" on the weak attempt at humor at the expense of this desparate song, then I see the comment on Akiko and thought the author meant this [markcrilley.com] AKiko, and while catching up on Crilly's newest stuff, Billie Holiday comes out of my iPod with the song.
All while I'm supposed to be working. The net is a 900 foot tall vampire what feeds on productivity.
Ooh, I wonder what Wikipedia has on "giant vampires"....
So... (Score:3, Informative)
The book is called 'Bound By Law? Tales From the Public Domain', and it is co-written and produced by Keith Aoki, James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins. The art is by Aoki.
Even most artists don't benefit from copyright law (Score:5, Interesting)
If you didn't see Courtney Love does the Math [jdray.com] in the Weird Al thread, please read it. it is a rather intelligent rant from the artist POV.
A shallow understanding of copyright law would make it seem that artists and their fans would be on opposite sides of this issue. But, except for a few who have retired on their royalty checks and no longer need to create or perform, that isn't the case. It is fans and artists vs the distribution industry. As soon as everyone understands that it is artists who should get paid for creating and while the distributors should get paid for distributing, and royalties should only be an incentive to artists as originally intended, then maybe our culture will belong to us and not locked up in private hands. Once an artist goes public with his work, then it is no longer private property. The copyright is simply a reward for contributing to the public forum. Wasn't that the original intent of the US short copyright?
Re:Even most artists don't benefit from copyright (Score:2)
I'm not saying copyright law isn't broken in many ways,
Re:Even most artists don't benefit from copyright (Score:1, Informative)
Check out the (C) Copyright liner on a major label CD, it doesn't say (C) Copyight Artist/Band but (C) Copyright Label because they don't own their own songs anymore.
That power is meaningless because it can be ripped off from t
Re:Even most artists don't benefit from copyright (Score:1)
Those bands didn't have to sign their rights away. There are plenty of musicians who self-publish or work with smaller labels where they can retain control.
That power is meaningless because it can be ripped off from the authors through market power: You either cede it to the publisher or you won't get published.
If you're talking about books, y
Re:Even most artists don't benefit from copyright (Score:2)
Intent was performance (Score:2)
You're absolutely right about the intent. It was the intent of the framers of the Constitution that an artist would not be able to live their entire life on one work.
That is, unless they lived less than 17 years.
It was an incentive to continue to perform -- not an incentive to sit back and collect.
Re:Intent was performance (Score:3, Insightful)
To Be Fair And Balanced... (Score:3, Informative)