Tuesday, October 12, 2010

#Copyright? Ok but what about copyresponsibility

The abuse of money caused copyright to be lengthened and strengthened. Abuse because negotiations are not held in public, abuse because marketeers and lobbyists pretend that a copyright violation is the same as theft. Abuse because this right is not balanced with responsibility.


The responsibility for those works that are excluded by a copyright from public use, should be with those who benefit from such exclusion. Identifying those who do is easy as they are these same industries that lobby for their "rights".

The industry is neither able nor willing to take up the responsibility to care for the cultural heritage that is not in the public domain. This right that is not tempered with responsibility will cause much to be lost. Organisations like the Library of Congress have raised the alarms repeatedly with little effect.

There is an increasing awareness that the artefacts of our modern culture need to be saved not only for us but also for future generations. Europeana is bringing many of the digitised collections of European GLAM together, it has sponsored the development of the Public Domain Calculators, it published a Public Domain Charter and it is a good and a positive document.

It however starts when copyrights ends. This has industry monetise and abuse our culture without taking its responsibilities. It is not strange why this industry and their politicians are loathed and despised.
Thanks,
     GerardM

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