The Silver Lining In The Eldred Copyright Extension Decision
from the the-people-are-fired-up dept
Siva Vaidhyanathan, well known for his views on copyrights, has written a great piece in Salon, which tries to look on the bright side of the Supreme Court decision in the Eldred case, which said that Congress's perpetual extension of copyright was constitutional. First, he points out that the Supreme Court made it clear that "fair use" rights are important. This statement may come back to haunt Hollywood down the road, as they work with Congress to erode fair use rights. More importantly, though, Vaidhyanathan argues that this has now shifted the argument to Congress. It's no longer an issue for the courts to decide, but an issue of policy. Policy, of course, can be influenced - and thanks to this case (and a few other events), the public is much more aware of the issues and much more likely to make quite a stink about it with their elected representatives. As he points out, when the last copyright extension act past, people didn't own TiVos or CD burners. But, times are changing. If anything (hopefully) this defeat galvanizes more people to work to effect change through elected representatives. The cynical will point out, of course, that corporations like Disney still have more pull in DC, but there is a limit to how far they can go when millions are screaming in protest. The more people point out that current copyright extensions do much more to harm creativity than to help it, the more likely that someone in Congress will take the populist stand, and fight the content cartel.
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Does it matter?
Incidentally, the older Disney cartoons are very racist, so opening them up to the public would cause a big ruckus. Bugs Bunny's "abadababadu..." line comes from a mockery of an illiterate black hunter from the South. If you listen closely to Roger Rabbit of the 1980s, you can hear the white duck at the piano call the black duck a nigger.
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Re: Does it matter?
As for the alleged racial epithet in Roger Rabit, see here.
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Yeah..ok..some bright side...
Yeah..and we ALL know just HOW these things get "influenced" and that its the public that influences these things...
In case it wasn't clear...note the huge sarcasm...
Fact is Disney and co. will always have more bucks and influence then joe sixpack...it would take a huge national movement to get anywhere NEAR the amount of pull they have...and media influences well make sure that this will never happen.
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Most people still don't understand or care
So if there's a silver lining, it's not a thick one. It was worth a try, and I throughly enjoyed the shots the justices took at Congress, essentially calling them out for not acting in the best interests of society.
In the end, unless campaign finance reform & the rest of the legalized bribery in the system are removed, Disney and the rest will continue to get whatever they want. The general public may be outraged enough to scare congressmen straight on a few issues, unfortunately this is not one of them.
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