Week 9 - Intellectual Property and Copyright - “I couldn’t imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah.”
Copyright discussions make me tired. Thinking about setting up a website with lots of images, quotes, and other paraphernalia might be fun, but add the copyright issues and you get nothing but a headache. Unfortunately, this issue is something I’ll have to think about more in my digitization project.
Originally, I didn’t think that copyright would be much of an issue as I was hoping to publish/digitize the publication of the Conservative Mennonite Conference on their own website. The Conservative Mennonites don’t seem too concerned with copyright and that combined with publishing it on their website made me think I could avoid it. While I’m still hoping this proves true eventually, things have gotten more confusing in the short term. Unfortunately, I am having to build the website at a different location and then transfer the archive to the Conference’s website. Currently, I’m using a little space through the Center for History and New Media, but was also thinking I should check with the Conservative Mennonite bible college, Rosedale Bible College, to see if they could host at least during the construction phase and maybe for a longer period of time. Unfortunately, the librarian there has brought up copyright questions. I haven’t actually talked with him about it yet, but I’m already worried about how this conversation will go. I simply don’t like the problems of copyright.
This week’s reading did help me to see how I can identify with both sides of the debate, but I think it would be fair to say that I still generally fall on the side that says that copyright should be less restrictive. I know that original artists should be paid there dues, but in the academic setting we’re far more focused on protecting/claiming our ideas rather than making money off of them. It’s easier to use other people’s ideas in this way, you simply have to give them credit by citing them. This is fairly simple, but add in money/profit and things get confusing.
One interesting debate on this subject (which I’m hoping Peter Jaszi will mention when he comes to speak to our class) is the demise of the fantastic documentary - Eyes on the Prize. This is probably one of the best overarching documentaries on the Civil Rights Movement. However, they have recently run into copyright issues and haven’t been able to make a DVD version of the video series or continue producing the series. Thus, it now sells on ebay for sometimes close to $1,000 for the complete series on VHS. I (like many others) think this is a ridiculous tragedy. We are losing one of the best documentaries on the Civil Rights Movement, because the producers can’t afford to renew copyright usage agreements. This story was reported on quite a lot about a year ago (Washington Post, Wired News, etc) but I’m not sure where it stands right now. At one point, a Civil Rights Movement activist even encouraged people to violate the copyright and burn digital copies of the series to preserve it. Many of the articles also quoted people from the Center for Social Media at American University who were very interested in this topic as well. I’m a huge fan of this series and would hate to see it disintegrate on old VHS tapes before somebody creates a digital version, but that is what copyright costs are doing.