I actually had a personal experience with copyright issues in this class, with my first blog post. My posting was about how Tupac’s song “Dear Mama” had been added to the Library of Congress, and I wanted a picture to go with the posting…so I googled “Tupac photos” and scrolled through many pages until I found one I liked. Then I copied it and pasted it in to my post. Then…. Professor Rubel asked me if it was copyrighted. I looked closely and sure enough- it was. Together, we tried to find one that wasn’t copyrighted, but it seemed the only ones available were pictures drawn by the people who posted them. That wasn’t at all what I wanted, so in the end Professor Rubel said I could just keep the copyrighted one posted, but if any charges were pressed, I should leave him out of it (I officially absolve him of any wrongdoing)… It definitely got me thinking though…
Another personal experience I had with copyright issues is music checked out from the library. I used to borrow CDs, burn them to my iTunes, and listen to them on my iPod or burn CDs of my own. It seemed like a lot of people I knew did this, so I figured it was ok. But last year, I made a friend of mine a mixed CD from music I had burned. She said thank you but then she gave it back, saying she couldn’t accept stolen goods. Stolen?! I was highly offended, and told her I worked in the library where the music was from, so didn’t she think I had a right to use it how I wanted? She said “actually no, that music is copyrighted, and you’re basically stealing from the artists you claim to like so much.” I thought about this a lot and I have been erasing my stolen music ever since and replacing it with music I purchased for myself. As the article for this week talk about, it’s harder for us to see that we’re stealing when its situations like that, making copies, or even just with ideas. I mean, I would know immediately if I walked in to Macy’s and left with a bunch of clothes I didn’t pay for…but music I burned? It took me awhile to see this in the same light. In fact, it still doesn’t seem as bad to me, and I think that mindset I have is a problem.
I found the article “Who Owns Native Culture?” to be a most interesting read. I was glad to hear that the Girl Scouts were never formally charged for their campfire sing-a-alongs (58). I participated in those often as a little girl though, so that may explain my later deviant behavior in copyright infringement and music.
I had not thought of copyrights as a way “to increase public knowledge” (59), rather I had seen them as a way for artists/authors/etc to earn a living and to have a say in what of their work is distributed and how. As you can see from my personal experiences above, my conscious interactions with the concept of copyright led me to believe that copyright was all about the artist or whoever keeping control of their work… I didn’t know that basically anything you write down is automatically copyrighted (58). I don’t feel like this article did a great job explaining how copyrighting makes things more available for public access, maybe we will talk about that more in class.
I am alos not sure what to make of the issues of intellectual property, copyright and Native People’s issues after reading this article. I like the point that many Native expressions may not be in a form that can be copyrighted, for example, there is more oral story-telling or dance with some Native peoples than writing or drawing. As the author points out at the end, copyright can offer natives some “modest protection” but it definitely is not enough to usurp the structure of society…. When I think about this in terms of working in a library, I think about how as a librarian or whatever my job is in the library, I can do my small part to help the patrons with what they need. I probably won’t reorganize America’s belief system single-handedly, but I do hope to do the best job possible in each interaction. I like the concept of the ripple effect: every interaction we have is a little ripple in the universe…it’s ok to not create waves all the time, small but consistent ripples are good too!
No comments:
Post a Comment