So I spent my day lugging boxes at work while listening to the radio special. Even though I didn’t manage to hear all of it, a weird feeling kept creeping over me. Very few of the guests on the show had any really negative views on the state of media companies today. Not even in the last group consisting of a Universal A&R, an indie CEO and a Press Officer of a distributer. In fact from what I heard the only ones really negative where a few listeners that called in. This is quite a change from just a few years ago.
One listener sent in an email referring to Article 27 §2 of the Declartion of Human Rights.
- Article 27
- Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
- Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
He obviously neglected to mention §1 as well as Article 30. Also Articles 12 and 26 complicate the matter further. It’s simply not reasonable, bordering on ludicrous to expect to be payed for every single use of every single copy of a work on the digital realm. The legal and surveillance machinery need to realize such a system would consume our democracy and violate several other human rights.
One important distinction did however make it through loud and clear. The non-commercial parts of copyright, concerning an authors right to be recognized as the author is not criticized by anyone. This might mean that the discussion could get out of the trenches this year. Yes? No? Yes! No… Maybe?
Recent Comments