Response to "Bound by Law"

“Bound by Law” (which you can check out here) illustrates (literally) the controversies around copyrighting, the public domain, and fair use, and I learned that I have a lot more to learn about how the law works. I think I’m still a little fuzzy on the specifics, but I understand that there is a massive grey area around what people can and cannot use in their creations due to copyrights. The examples given in the text show how difficult it is to try and abide by the law while also taking full advantage of your rights when there seems to be a myriad of hidden clauses and obstacles to hurdle in order to get a clear answer about what is available to the public. For example, pages 10 and 11 made my head spin from all the possibilities over what is and isn’t up for grabs, so I can’t blame artists for just assuming that a majority of works are copyrighted instead of trying to “track down” “time-consuming and fruitless” information (Aoki et al 10).

This clever and entertaining way of delivering potentially dry and (dare I say) boring information was effective, and it also raised a few questions for me. Do copyrights infringe on our freedom of speech or do they actually protect the work of creators? Do they censor our history by “giv[ing] copyright holders a veto over history” (27)? Are copyrights taken as seriously in other countries that aren’t fueled by capitalism? Would Jon Else’s $10,000 fine for 4.5 seconds of a background snippet of “The Simpson’s” happen anywhere else (13)?

The text also made me think of a video I saw a few months ago from TruTV’s “Adam Ruins Everything,” which is less than 3 minutes long (I’ll link it down below) and connects to this week’s topic. The video, titled “How Mickey Mouse Destroyed the Public Domain,” animates how life was before and after Disney and other companies “lobbied Congress to extend the term of copyright by decades” to continue profiting from their characters. This change pulled characters from the public domain, “locking away” creativity for others. Adam argues that “remixing the works of the past is an essential part of how we create new culture,” and I'd have to agree with him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiEXgpp37No