The issue of Intellectual Property rights

Jan 22, 2010

The issue of Intellectual Property rights

This post has not been approved by Media Co-op editors!

Recently, there has been a debate about intellectual property rights and the role they should play. On one side, the need to enforce copyright laws and battle piracy. On the other, the argument that all art builds on previous works coupled with the goal of having all human creations freely available. Alternatives have been created to address the flaws in copyright laws and s have become widely used. A plan is currently being drafted by a small group of countries that would allow for strict intellectual property enforcement. There has predictably been much resistance, but due to the secrecy of the arrangement, much is still unknkown. Let's start at the beginning with what the purpose of copyrights should be.

Copyrights

The main purpose for copyrights are to provide a means for artists to profit from their creations and through this, give them an incentive to create. This should be acheived by giving them a temporary monopoly on their creation which ensures that they can generate an income from them. Unfortunately, the lifespan of copyrights have been pushed to longer time spans and as a result often act as a detterent to creative output rather than encouraging it.

According to current Canadian copyright laws, the lifespan of copyright are the duration of the artist's life plus 50 years laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-42/section-6.html. This arrangement is obviously not designed for the benefit of the artist. It undoubtable to benefit the middlement who 'manage' the artist or those who can buy the rights. If the goal behind copyrights were once to create the incentive to create, they surely are not now and are rather a means for someone to hold a monopoly over a creation and profit from it.

Alternatives

Several alternatives have arisen lately to compensate for the flaws in current copyright laws. Creative Commons is a widely used alternative which can allows the creator to specify what purposes their creations can be used for. They give the creator great control over what can be done to their creation and also how they can be used. Most of the licenses under this label allow for free distribution, however there is the option of not allow others to derive new creations from the licensed work, and for this reason has been criticized by some.

Another alternative which is alligned with the idea of free culture is the General Public Liscense (GPL) www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html. This license is used mostly for computer software, though the same organization, the Free Software Foundation (FSF), has also created a GFDL license to be applied to documentation. The foundations of these licenses are that everyone should be permitted to use public creations for any purpose, adapt them if they see the need, and be able to freely share the creations and their derivatives with everyone.

After the copyrights expire, all works fall into the public domain. At this point they are considered public property and free to be used in any way by everyone. The free culture movement essentially wants all creations to be part of the public domain from the start and free to all.

Pressure for International Agreements

Internationally, there has recently been pressure for countries to reach a common agreement on Intellectual Property. There is concern that this could create identical circumstances in many countries and as a result, the experiment of how different policies affect creative output would not be conducted. A more balanced approach would be to let many countries try different appoaches to the issue and see under which circumstances the desire outcome arises.

This common agreement is being drafted as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). It is a propsed plurilateral trade agreement that would set international standards on intellectual property policy. It has been described a response "to the increase in global trade of counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works." www.med.govt.nz/templates/ContentTopicSummary____34357.aspx. The 7th round of the talks are scheduled to begin next tuesday in Mexico. www.mfat.govt.nz/Trade-and-Economic-Relations/Trade-Agreements/Anti-Counterfeiting/0-ACTAagendaroundseven.php Much of the agenda is dedicated to enforcement and internet issues.

It is obvious that it's goal is to try to halt the sharing of information through methods that have arisen due to the internet. Methods like P2P file sharing are widely used and an extremely economical ways of sharing information. Many artists see this as a great thing and a way for their art to reach countless people which would have been unaccessible. Unfortunately, it is seen as undesirable when the goal of art is to make money and not to encourage creativity.

There is also bilateral negotiations underway between Canada and the EU to reach a trade deal which would integrate our copyright laws. Amoung other things, this would increase the length of a copyright to 70 years past the death of the artist. This step is entirely in the wrong direction; instead of making creative work more available, it would make them less. The really boggling part is that it's wouldn't even have an effect for the artist, it increase the length further past their death!

We have yet to see what will come out these negotiation. All we can hope for is that the drive for creative output will outweigh the goal of money and will become the goal we all work toward.