copyrighting culture
June 8th, 2008 • research, teaching
Jackson Publick - interviewed at The AV Club about the new series of The Venture Brothers - says something that chimes with the arguments Lawrence Lessig has repeatedly made about the way our culture has evolved until extremely recently:
Our characters were part of the world that we were, and they love and remember and hate the same things that we did, and it’s affected their lives. That’s why it kills me when we get legal notes about some of this stuff, because you’re just like, “I don’t understand why I can’t use that, or talk about that, or reference it. I was bombarded with this on television when I was 6. Somebody spent a lot of money making sure that I would never forget this, and now when I act like it’s a household word, I’m not allowed to use it.” There’s your irony!
The relentless, unthinking pursuit of copyright - unlimited by any time limit or condition of fair use - is the death of culture.
