Slide notes - Changes in media production and distribution which have led to the development of Creative Commons

Intro self

Topic: The changes in media production and distribution which have led to the
development of CC licensing

Presentation outline:
 Quick basics of copyright , with a little cultural History in the mix

 Changes in technology: Four major ‘technological revolutions’ (credit to Clay
Shirky for way of dividing changes)

 Digitalisation, the Internet… Creative Commons

1

Copyright means that certain works cannot be shared, remixed or reused without
permission from the copyright holder—usually the author.

-- Copyright applies to ALL *original* works (huge debates possible)
-- including films, songs, images, dramas, sound recordings, TV and radio
broadcasts and Internet publications and transmissions.
-- C symbol is unimportant – because as soon as a new work is recorded in material
form – written down or saved on a computer – it automatically receives copyright
protection
-- Original doesn’t always mean “good” (subjective) or professionally made E.g. no
one can use my photo of my dog without my permission

2

Why protection?
Basically, copyright gives a creator – an individual artist or a company - an incentive
to create, and ensures them that they will be rewarded for what they make.

-- Once creative work is out there, it can be copied or reproduced at little or no
cost. This means that if the right to duplicate a work is not controlled, it's economic
value would diminish, resulting in a market failure. Copyright corrects this by
ensuring that those who initially invested in getting the work to market are
rewarded for their entrepreneurship and 'creativity‘.

-- The principles of intellectual property, in particular copyright, allow creative
industries to profit from and sustain cultural production by granting economic and
moral rights.

3

For literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, copyright lasts for the lifetime of
the creator, and then an extra 50 years following their death.

The first copyright law, the Statute of Anne in 1710, was for only 14 years. Statute
of Anne, 1710, “For the encouragement of learning”
Or USA Constitution:
“To promote the progress of science and useful arts.”

4

-- 70 years in most countries
-- Different for companies
-- Realising early work set to expire, Disney did a big lawsuit in 90s, managing to
extend corporate copyright to 120 years

5

When the period of copyright in a work is over, the creator’s work goes into the
public domain. This means anyone is free to use and profit from the work as they
please.
But a lot of culture still comes under copyright.

6

Early copyright laws recognised that culture always build on the past.

Flick back to last two slides – explain Disney & Copyright, then Shakespeare and
Public Domain

7

TECHNOLOGY: Gutenberg’s printing press, 1430. Played a large part in the
Renaissance, explosion of culture. First assembly line style of printing books
--- Ask class what the best-selling book of all of history is (Bible)
 Previously took a year for a scribe to write, at few pages a day. Press could
do 3600 pages a day.
--- Made possible the mass reproduction of books, newspapers  led to first
copyright laws
--- The Message goes from ONE to MANY

8

200 years ago: slow text based communication - conversation, then real time voice
ONE to ONE – Conversational medium

9

Photography, Film, Sound
ONE  MANY

10

Radio and television
ONE  MANY

11

-- What you need to produce mass media
 Go through items on slide (touched on previously)

-- Easiest was photography, or typewriting– but even then mass production was
difficult
To broadcast radio – still required a certain amount of equipment

-- As new consumer technologies introduced.. Professionals got worried, e.g.
George Eastman – invention of Kodak camera (continues next slide)

12

-- Each time there was a new technology – particularly one that was capable of
copying or reproducing a creative work – a professional industry or group would
get worried / bring out lawsuits

-- VCR / Betamax - like the MySky of 80s (was invented some years earlier and
used by the TV industry – meaning they no longer had to do a live broadcast)
 For the television industry, worries about ads

13

But film industry needn’t have worried because it turned out to be a great new way
to make money (In 1986 Disney made US$100 million of pure profit from home
video sales)

“In a landmark judgement in 1984, the Supreme Court ruled that the home
recording of television programs for later viewing constituted "fair use."1 An
important factor in the Court’s reasoning was that "time-shifting" – i.e. recording a
program to watch it at another time – did not represent any substantial harm to
the copyright holder, nor did it diminish the market for the product.” (from:
http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2006/06/article_0003.html)

14

Around the same time, a genre of music was emerging – a remix of genres from
the past (show video – should start 4m 40s - a music industry producer / outsider
looking in at what was happening in New York. Play clip until breakdancing starts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwqQQraQ4MI&feature=player_detailpage#t=
297s (video should start about 4m 40s)

15

Technology evolving - 80s – tape deck - 90s use personal stereos to copy stuff from
CDs onto tapes (e.g. send a mix tape to your crush on valentines day)

Equipment was cheaper, but you still couldn’t mass produce media yourself --- no
easy means of distribution

To go back to copyright: Although there were different -interpretations- of terms
within copyright law to adjust for new technologies, the law itself did not really
adjust much aside from the length of copyright being slowly extended.

16

-- Also keep in mind that during this time – late 70s etc – home computers were
being developed, getting more powerful
-- So rather than store media on something physical, it could be made digital – so
we had the Compact Disc - or CD , and soon the CDR, then later the DVD.
-- Significant change – because once something is digital – it becomes very very
easy to copy.

-- Eventually made a lot professional production a lot easier in terms of the
equipment you needed, it drove down prices, consumers electronics became
cheaper, digital cameras, home DVD cameras.

-- It also, with tools like Photoshop, and film editing software – it’s made it a lot
easier for anyone to make or edit a creative work – and make it look pretty good,
without much money or formal training

-- But no distribution - digitalisation is just one (key) aspect of the next big
revolution…

17

THE INTERNET

-- For the first time in history – anyone (with an internet connection) could get a
message out to a large audience, who could then talk to each other about that
message
Many  Many

-- On the Internet you can do everything that traditional media can do – read a
book, make phone calls, watch a movie, see photos, listen to the radio, watch TV.
 Combine that with freely / cheaply available editing software, and you can
produce media like a pro

-- Anyone can make an image macro with a popular culture reference and a crazed
cat, then have millions of people see it
(of course there is a lot that never gets seen)

18

Internet presented problems for copyright  play video.
So trouble for artists > audience breaking law with new technology > record
companies suing

(Since then things have changed, many tend to stream music more than download)

REMIX MANIFESTO VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=umj9YfZEluo
(start at 1.16, end with Cory Doctorow “building biggest library”)

19

-- We had was Copyright on one side – and Public Domain on the other

-- Copyright – few freedoms, Public domain – few restrictions

So in realising that there needed to be a mid point, in the early 2000s a group of
liked minded academics, activists, computer geeks etc, got together and came up
with Creative Commons… which created a series of mid points

20

Launched in 2002
-- With a Creative Commons licence, you keep your copyright – so you keep your
ownership of the work - but allow people to copy and distribute, and build upon
your work provided they give you credit — though you can specify what exactly
people can do with your work

21

All have attribution

22

Explain, briefly pros & cons

24

Explain, examples of what counts as a derivative (translations)

25

Each licence has different rules and grants a different range of freedoms.
All Creative Commons licenses require that you credit the original creator when re-
using their work in any way.

The licences share a set of baseline rights, with each licence choice being
expressed in three ways:

Commons Deed: A plain-language summary of the licence, with relevant icons.
Legal Code: The full legal terms.
Digital Code: A machine-readable translation of the licence that helps search
engines and other applications identify the licensed work by its terms of use.

26

Remix of all CC images used in powerpoint [optional: flick through all images and
note licenses] – except no derivatives
Explain why NC (due to SA of tape image, among others)

Creative Commons – Culture is a Commons

27

So much to build upon.

Make note on referencing

28

Slide notes - Changes in media production and distribution which have led to the development of Creative Commons

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Slide notes - Changes in media production and distribution which have led to the development of Creative Commons