From Legal Rights and Copyleft for Business Acumen lecture for Artists at UCT Graduate School of Business. A primer to help artists get a sense of how to protect and promote their own creative works within the vibrant and rapidly evolving connection-economy. There is increased fear of copying, and stealing of intellectual property. Creative entrepreneurs have astonishing market advantage however, thanks to the dizzying scope of the internet: to get into direct contact with their fans; sell & pre-sell; draw on the pool of open-licensed culture and tools; develop and test new business models in more fluid IP environments. This is how we learn to make amazing things, with rules. And exercise our rights to expand what edifies our humanity.
DISCLAIMER [In appropriately small text]: We provide general educational information that may be helpful to those interested in the legal issues, particularly intellectual property issues arising from the interaction of creative expression, business, digital media and their practical applications. It is not intended to be definitive legal advice, and is not provided as such. We advise you always to seek professional legal advice before taking any action that could have a major impact on your life or business. This is not an impartial work of reference. Bias intended. The ARTIST The LAW & A COMMONS-SENSE GUIDE
Transcript
DISCLAIMER [In appropriately small text]: We provide general educational information that may be helpful to those interested in the legal issues, particularly intellectual property issues arising from the interaction of creative expression, business, digital media and their practical applications. It is not intended to be definitive legal advice, and is not provided as such. We advise you always to seek professional legal advice before taking any action that could have a major impact on your life or business. This is not an impartial work of reference. Bias intended.
The ARTIST The LAW&
A COMMONS-SENSE GUIDE
DAMMED[enclosing cultural currency]
Self portrait. Rev Charles Dodgson. Public Domain
Do artists need a financial incentive to create?Does increased protection foster innovation?
brands are globalized. no matterhow bananas the suits, do be aware.
WHAT IS COPYRIGHT?set of regimes that deals with creative works.
1. Originality (effort)2. Material form3. Qualified person
No registration necessary (avail for cinematic works)
an IDEA itself is not protected.
Copyright will not subsist in a work which is immoral, obscene, libellous or irreligious.
Duration is 50 years after death in SA = limited monopoly the Copyright Act of 1978 (Act 98 of 1978
there are EXCEPTIONS.INFRINGEMENT
IT’S JUST FOR YOU: the use of a literary or musical work for private studyREVIEWCRITICISM or PARODYREPORTAGE of current eventsEDUCATION! teaching material (within limits)PUBLIC LECTURE: reproducing a lecture or address, if the reproduction is for information purposes
BEWARE: the exception does not apply when the whole of the work, or a substantial part of it, is reproduced for its original purpose.
IMPORTANT - GIVE CREDIT: provided that mention is made of the name of the author and the source of the extract
GET TO KNOW YOUR FAIR DEALING RIGHTScase-by-case merit. no fixed rules
is it a TRANSFORMATIONAL WORK?(your ‘creative spark’ / ‘sweat of the brow’)
is it copied for its ORIGINAL PURPOSE?
or
JUDGE: what’s your transformative purpose?
like a muscle,if you don’t exercise your
rights... they atrophy
Image Credit : CelebMuscle http://www.flickr.com/photos/celebmuscle NC SA
“Only those with no memory insist on their originality.” — Coco Chanel
“It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.” - Jean-Luc Godard
GOTO: austinkleon.com / free-culture.cc
improvuse what the world
gives you
SOCIAL OBJECTS + SOCIAL CURRENCY
reactive? creative?
Free licenses and other legal tools to give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions and get credit for their scientific information, educational materials, and cultural resources while allowing others to copy, distribute
and make specific uses of it. Legally enforceable in our jurisdiction.You retain your copyright while inviting others to access, reuse or remix according to your license selection.
creativecommons.orglicenses also in Afrikaans, isiZulu & seSotho
DECODING the LICENSES
the really big deal.
give credit to the creator
BYattribution
DECODING the LICENSES
apply the same license as you
share on
BYattribution
SAshare alike
DECODING the LICENSES
BYattribution
NDno derivatives.aka keep as is, nix on the remix
DECODING the LICENSES
BYattribution NC
non commercialaka commercialrights reserved
3 layers of readability
21
3legal
human
machine
how nice.but to be fair, i’m a fan of money
The world of business is being warped by the internet.
Weirder than wonderland, creatives have the massive advantage now. seriously.
EMERGINGBUSINESS MODELS
3
dare to share your IP
CASE STUDIES: techdirt.com
“Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors than piracy”
- Tim O’Reilly
or indiegogo.com if you don’t have US account
CONSUMERS >> PRESUMERS
reputation accelerated by freely sharing films. Now leveraged through fans.
*
*
not about the IP of the product itself. Pirating personality, not so easy.
new models for production and distribution of audiovisual material have appeared, where author and audiences are connected much closer together. now what?
IN THE COPYMACHINE
IN THE COPYMACHINE
IN THE COPYMACHINE
less ip protection,more money & Market opportunity.
99c
what’s better than free?
WTF!why?
evidence vs faith-based initiativesREAD: thepublicdomain.org
account for the counter-intuitive. Instinct can lead us astray. test for truth
..& because awesomeness has a really short 1/2 life
ATTENTION ECONOMY
Be careful of confusing value with price. Making something free does not "devalue" it.
Do we put books in libraries because we, as a culture, believe books are worthless?
Of course not. We believe they are so valuable, that we need to make them available to everyone.
You have a giant pool of creative works to draw on without having to clear rights & pay $$$ to start your art now. Don’t wait, create!
You can expand your reach of reputation by providing legal ways for fans to remix + share
Innovation is very profitable in some low IP environments where desirability governs value
Transform don’t just lazily copy just to profit from the same purpose.
Say thank you! give the original creator the attribution & link.
People WILL copy what works, build & leverage your reputation and market value, rather than seeking maximum protection of the works themselves.
Increase the vibrancy of our shared human wealth with your works. Make and share in the open. Be inspired, remix, repurpose, share widely, give fans a reason to buy from YOU.
Genius is overrated. Let your best ideas have a social life. Invite others to build your creative works with you.
SUGGESTIONS
COST OF COPYno need for your own scriptorium & squad of monks.
lucky fish. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MAXIMIZE
THIS OPPORTUNITY?
A great flourishing of creativity and discovery
upon us again.
The raw material of human culture should not
be denied to the next generation of
creators and scientists,just because we’re afraid to evolve our business models.
Apply scientific method to your fears.
Exercise your rights.
ADDITIVECULTURE
let’s build together+@maxkaizen
Commonsense Legal Primer for Artists by Max Kaizen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
