A Filmmaker Explains Why Copyright Sucks Today: An Excerpt From 'Sell Your Own Damn Movie!
from the filmmakers-figuring-it-out dept
Written by Lloyd Kaufman with Sara Antill. Lloyd Kaufman is founder of Troma Films. His most recent book, “Sell Your Own Damn Movie!” is now available in paperback.This article is cross-posted from IndieWIRE.
I met a Troma fan in Florida a few years ago who told me how he used to get eight Netflix DVDs at a time, keep them for a day or two while he downloaded them to his computer and then return them for eight more. Once he had the digital files, he would make copies for his friends, asking about $2 for the cost of the blank DVD and the effort.
One night, while extremely high, he had figured out that, based on the number of movies he had copied and the penalty for each one, if caught, he would owe the government about $2.5 million in fines and face the rest of his life in prison.
Now, for someone who had already sold himself to the government in the form of federal student loans for film school, the prospect of an extra $2.5 million was pretty frightening. He gave up the pirate DVD business and started selling weed instead, as there were fewer risks involved. That was how we met. Last I heard, he was in jail for selling drugs, but he’ll be out sooner than if he had been caught selling $2 DVDs of “I Know Who Killed Me” to his friends.
Thomas Jefferson would have been appalled at this story. And not just because I think he would have liked trashy Lindsay Lohan movies. But because Thomas Jefferson believed that all art should belong to the public. For him, public domain was a large, thriving democracy, while copyright was a fat king thousands of miles away eating puddings and meat pies.
Unfortunately, we have reversed this with current law. Now copyright is king, while public domain has been relegated to obscurity. Thomas Jefferson, who was against copyright and said himself, “Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property,” finally agreed to compromise and include the issue of patents (and, by interpretation, copyright law) in the Constitution:
The Congress shall have Power … To promote the Progress of Science
and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors
the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
First of all, let’s understand that authors meant writers. No heavy metal singer or filmmaker was assumed to be covered under this law. And by “limited times,” Jefferson meant 14 years. That meant that if you invented something or wrote a book, you had 14 years to make back the money that you spent and make a profit. After that, the invention or work would become part of the public domain and other people would be able to improve on it.
That’s exactly what happened when Edison didn’t secure an international patent for his early film projector! Everyone in Europe, including those smarter and more passionate than Edison, had the opportunity to improve on his design and create the film industry that we know and love today!
In fact, while Edison was shooting his films in New Jersey, some bright folks had the idea to get out of New Jersey and New York and head to California to make their movies. It wasn’t because they loved the beach; it was because they wanted to be farther away from Edison so he would have a harder time enforcing his patents.
And there’s the irony—the entire Hollywood studio system was based on evading patent law, yet now they are the strictest enforcers! They are the ones suing sweaty prepubescent fanboys (and their parents) for downloading copies of “The Hurt Locker”!
Once patent and copyright law had been written into the Constitution, it was decided that everything created before the law would be considered public domain. That’s why the writings of Plato and Homer are free for anyone to use.
But considering that the ancient Greeks created democracy and civilization, you would think they would have created copyright law if they had wanted to. The fact that they didn’t makes me think they would have supported truly independent art. In fact, I may start calling myself a modern-day Socrates!* (Like Socrates, I want to drink poison and die. But unlike Socrates, I am a chicken. Or at least a (Night of the) Chicken (Dead). (Shameless plug.)
So with Jefferson’s 14-year copyright, everything seemed fine. But then a man named Walt Disney created a little shit named Mickey Mouse, and everything changed.
HOW MICKEY MOUSE BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THOMAS JEFFERSON
In 1928, Mickey Mouse appeared in the first sound-synchronized cartoon, Steamboat Willie , which was a parody (in Disnenglish, a copyright infringement) of a Buster Keaton film, “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” Mickey Mouse became an instant star and Walt Disney’s meal ticket. By 1956, when “Steamboat Willie” was all set to enter the public domain, Disney had become a powerhouse corporation, and it interceded on little Mickey’s behalf:
Disney Executive: You see, Senator, if “Steamboat Willie” were to belong to the public, they would pretty much own Mickey Mouse, too. And we can’t let that happen.
Senator: No, no. We must protect Mickey.
Disney Executive: What we need, Senator, is an extension of the copyright law. That way, we can keep Mickey safe.
Senator: Yes, yes. We must protect Mickey.
Disney Executive: Yes, Senator, we must protect Mickey.
The Disney executive puts away his hypnotist materials, leaves a pile of cash on the table, and leaves. The hypnotized senator wakes up with the overwhelming urge to protect Mickey Mouse. Days later, copyright law is extended.
Buster Keaton, however, continues to receive food stamps.
This scene is repeated in 1984 and 2003. “Steamboat Willie” will remain the intellectual property of Disney until 2023, almost 100 years after it was created and many, many years after the last person who worked on it became snail food. And at some point before 2023, I’m guessing the copyright laws will be extended once again.
An interesting little twist to this whole story, which was sent to me by steamboat4eva@hotmail.com, is that someone at Disney discovered in the 1990s that “Steamboat Willie” may actually be in the public domain already. This was due to a mistake in the wording of the original copyright. A law student at Arizona State University investigated this claim and agreed. Then another law student at Georgetown wrote another paper confirming the claim. At this point, Disney threatened to sue the student and the claim hasn’t been uttered since.
I’m not advocating breaking the law. I can’t, because then if you do break the law, you can come back and say, “Kaufman told me to,” and that would be a gigantic goiter in the ass for me.
So I’m not telling you to become a pirate and break the law. What I am saying is what we need is to once again make public domain the Earth and demote copyright to a dwarf planet.
* NOTE FROM LLOYD’S ASSISTANT: I don’t think you need to say this, since filmmakers didn’t exist at this point.
**LLOYD’S RESPONSE: I’m still operating under the theory that film was invented by the Chinese thousands of years ago.
****ASSISTANT’S RESPONSE: Whatever. Lloyd sucks balls.
******NOTE FROM FOOTNOTE GUY: Uh, should I take this out? Whatever, fuck it. I think Lloyd sucks balls, too.
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Filed Under: copyright, movies, public domain
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Maybe that's what it makes you think, but what it makes me think is that the printing press had not yet been invented at that time. Copyright was an answer to a question the ancient Greeks had no reason to even ask.
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Re: Press
> that time.
So what? They still had pen and paper. Ideas could be copied and "infringed", just not perhaps on such an extensive scale.
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Re: Re: Press
The real reason it burnt down? Skynet won't be made to defend humanity, it will be made to defend copyright. As we speak there are terminators roaming throughout history, destroying libraries, getting law degrees, causing the dark ages.
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So, the only way to copy a book is with a printing press? Or are you saying that the act known as copyright infringement is only relevant if it takes place on a mass scale?
Besides if Plato, for example, could have a book written then his contemporaries could easily "steal" those ideas by writing a similar book. Why do you think that Plato didn't see the need to "protect" his works like later authors?
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Steamboat Willy paper that was referenced
Free Willy! Err... Mickey!
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Re: Steamboat Willy paper that was referenced
(emphasis mine)
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Re: Steamboat Willy paper that was referenced
yes, it was walt's company and driving force to find a new character, but he was a bidnessman and visionary, not a master animator/artist like ub iwerks...
ub did most all the actual work on them (presumably, 'work for hire') whilst walt was imagineering a control-freaks empire...
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
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* One of the leading founding fathers didn't like the idea of copyright.
* He (and others) only let it in based on the idea that a very limited group of people would get a very limited time for their monopoly. All of those "very limited"s have become the exact opposite.
* The greatest Greek philosophers probably would not have liked copyright.
* The industry that is one of the biggest proponents of maximizing intellectual property laws got its start by infringing on someone else's intellectual property.
* Disney is willing to sue if you point out that what they claim is protected by copyright law actually isn't.
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* Disney (a private company) was the architect of much of modern copyright law
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At least that's what I'm gleaning from all of this.
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The US government did not have the authority to grant rights in the writings of the Greek philosophers.
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Don't forget: copyright is an artificial construct, not a natural right. It didn't exist for most of civilization's history. It could have been whatever we wanted it to be.
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Robbed of what exactly? Royalties that didn't exist _then_ and shouldn't exist _now_?
That's not only ridiculous, it's insulting to every intelligent and reasonable person alive. You're pretending that everyone in the world _should_ be paying royalties to every author descendant from the beginning of human civilization. To every inventor descendant. To every musician descendant.
And who should we let decide how much in royalties the guy/guys that invented the wheel should receive? And how much to each descendant?
Robbed? Really?
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Whatever. Let's just agree that the original "register for 14 years, and you can re-register once for 14 more" system was fine and dandy, and the current "automatically for life and 120 years after the death of the author, until we get it extended yet again" system is insane.
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I disagree with ..
"First of all, let�s understand that authors meant writers. No heavy metal singer or filmmaker was assumed to be covered under this law. "
Nope. Read it again. Its quite clear that he meant an author or an inventor of any form, whether it be art, science, what-ever
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Re: I disagree with ..
You got it right. When copyright came about, there were no heavy metal singers or film makers. There was also no internet. By extending his logic, copyright would only cover things created using the technology of the day the law was written, and would not apply in any modern circumstance whatsoever or to any modern technology. That just seems silly, doesn't it?
With such a rather easily discredited basis for much of his point of view, it's pretty easy to imagine that most of his other points depend on either excluding things that don't agree with his view, or purposely ignoring contrary results.
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Repetative redundancy that repeats itself?
"Disney...hypnotist materials" and "pile of cash"...feeling redundant today?
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Re: Repetative redundancy that repeats itself?
Sure, they like the cash, campaign contributions, corporate support, wine and dining, etc. that is thrown at them by industry. And that definitely has an influence on policy.
However, the 'hypnotist materials' are also extensively used. This is the part of the gambit where our politicians TRULY BELIEVE that 'supporting industry' means supporting the big corps. That 'supporting the music industry' means supporting recording studios. They truly believe that innovation=patents. They truly believe the bogus research reports that industry presents to them. The believe they are protecting jobs by extending IP rights duration.
It would be nice if it were just a matter of bribery. The dis-information is harder to combat. That's because passion and "they took our jobs" is easy to understand and economics is not.
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Writer89 writes
"Couldn�t agree more. WB and the other big players let thousands of great and near-great films from the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s lay around gathering dust for decades, refusing to release them on DVD, but as soon as collectors began making copies of what they assumed were abandoned films available to people at reasonable prices through the Internet, they created the Warner Archive Collection so they could do it themselves, and immediately sued (bypassing the cease and desist letter of warning, which would have done the trick) a number of these suppliers, demanding cash and threatening dire consequences. All anybody wanted was for these films to be available for home viewing (other than on TCM). And of course the manufactured-on-demand copies they are selling contain code to prevent them from being played on a computer or any other device which might be able to copy them! Can you hear Jefferson spinning in his grave?"
http://www.indiewire.com/article/why_piracy_is_good_and_copyright_sucks_an_excerpt_from_s ell_your_own_damn_m/
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The laws that protect the rich (the most) carry steeper penalties.
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The irony abounds. Say Bill, do you think that Lloyd doesn't know about Disney either?
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You should view Cory Doctorow's "Every Pirate Wants to Be an Admiral"
http://craphound.com/?p=3510
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How stupid is this country?
I don't know which is worse: the fact that you included this erroneous nugget, or that 27 commenters missed it and chose to focus on Mickey Mouse instead (SMH) . . .
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Two of those "bright folks" were bothers. The Warner Brothers. I thought that was an important point that was missed.
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I know my idea is hardly original (especially among the Techdirt community), but I still feel like I need to say it. Any works that are released in my lifetime absolutely do not have a limited term as far as I'm concerned, since they will never enter the public domain until I am dead.
Actually, I've changed my mind, and when evil raporists are found guilty of copyright infringement, I think judges should start sentencing them to prison for limited terms. Life plus 70 sounds pretty good to me.
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However, that being said, what seems like the biggest issue to me (and what Lloyd was trying to allude to in his article) is the copyrighting of IDEAS. It�s fine and dandy to want to make money from a film�we all want at least enough money to live, and most of us want more than that. But it seems to me that there could easily be some sort of royalty laws or legislation that charges people who use the ideas/aesthetics/characters of an �author�s� work�thereby providing filmmakers/writers/programmers/etc. with a livelihood, but also providing the public with the rights to their ideas.
The biggest issue I see raised in this article is the idea of �authorship� in an increasingly globalized, collaborative age. Most projects of any sort these days are the work of 10s or 100s or 1000s of people from all over the globe. Ideas, legally attained or not, are everywhere thanks to the internet. It�s hard to truly say that one person or even one company completely �owns� the rights to an idea.
Kaufman touches on this a little bit here when he discuss some of the issues surrounding net neutrality: http://www.g4tv.com/videos/53711/fathers-day-with-tromas-lloyd-kaufman/
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umm
Except that :
1 Europe isn't a country
2 various others on this side of the pond had already done much of the ground work and had patents on it .
see for example
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Friese-Greene
Classic case of parallel invention .
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Re: umm
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I thought copyright was the right to copy
Now the publishers still make huge profits while authors (written, music, film, picture) have to sell merch, and tour the country to promote their works so they can eat.
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Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse
It is too bad that the Congress and U.S. Senator did not realize this.
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