[fc-uk-discuss] Ye Olde AGM (or why you should sign up on the wiki)

[David Berry]

>
>> How about actually addressing the issues, and dealing with the   
>> questions raised by the radical reform of copyright, rather than   
>> idiotic abolitionist positions
>
> As something of a fan of the Libre Commons licenses I don't  
> understand what is
> wrong with the consciousness raising content of 14+14. We shouldn't  
> take a
> managerialistic view of either the problem or the public.
>

14+14 is not an abolitionist position. Is it? That sounds awfully  
like copyright reform to me.

What's managerialist about seeking to form alliances with musicians  
and artists rather than simply attack their source of independent  
income. I know many musicians who live through their PRS payments  
(mainly from the BBC) which are threatened if copyright were to be  
changed either through 14+14 or abolition.


>> that are not substantiated by careful  consideration of the pros  
>> and cons - afterall SOMEHOW the artists and  musicians *will* need  
>> to be compensated else why would they accept  change.
>
> I'm more concerned with being able to sing in the shower (see  
> Australia's
> current proposed copyright law)

I somehow don't see how The Man will monitor you in your shower. So a  
bit of a straw (the) Man.

> than Cliff Richard getting another pension (see
> the interview in which SirCliff admits he ignored his financial  
> advisor's advice
> to get one in the 1950s). Which isn't to say I haven't worked on  
> how to
> "compensate" artists and musicians for their suffering and do not  
> continue to
> do so.
>

We are not talking about Sound Recording Copyright here.

> Creative Commons's fixation on showing how they can make you a  
> multimillionaire
> like winning Pop Idol doesn't is harmful not only to freedom but to  
> people's
> ability to -er- make money. Trying to reproduce the imaginary  
> benefits of
> supply-side culture at the real expense of free culture and people  
> making a
> living is not a mistake I wish to emulate.

Again, my point is to make an argument that appeals to artists and  
musicians not the huge industries around it (CC's mistake). And a  
definition of free culture, the limits and hey, how can it survive  
without the very copyright that it needs to exist?

Public Domain NOT= Free Culture


>
>> See William Fisher's book, Promises to Keep, for an excellent   
>> attempt to make a cogent case for copyright reform.
>
> Do I *have* to read Fisher's book? I really wasn't impressed by  
> Lessig's riff on
> it. If I want to be spied on online and have my use of music  
> monitored and
> restricted in the name of monetisation I'll just start lobbying for  
> DRM. I'm
> currently looking warily at Benkler, which seems to be a Web 2.0  
> remix of Maus
> without the anthropology. It's been years since I've wished there  
> was a Cliff's
> Notes for something. ;-)

Reviewed via Lessig is not the best way to read books IMHO.

Fisher is a very careful empirical look at the real numbers - and how  
funds can (at least for the short term) be reconfigured to support a  
new form of funding for the arts. Its interesting, quite convincing  
and very very carefully researched. Try out the numbers in your next  
argument with a record company -- blows them away.

I am not saying that that is the only answer. Merely FC has a nasty  
habit of shouting slogans, rather than thinking. What is copyright?  
What do we as a group want from it, and if it no longer fits the  
requirements what will replace it?

Best

David