The controversy surrounding the Obama hope poster is pretty interesting - there seems to be no real argument that the artist's actions are legit. He says in his interview that he found the image online and used it. What's silly is that had he asked the photographer if he could use the photo, there's a decent change he would have said yes. How many amateurs wouldn't? When someone wants to use your work its a compliment, and many people are excited to contribute to the greater artistic community. The illustrator and photographer would have been co-artists of the poster.
Because he did NOT ask permission, a silly situation is created. Both parties are trying to sue the other on loose grounds. It's not fair that the artist claims full credit for an image that is based on someone's artistic photo. It's similarly silly that the artist, when blamed decided to "sue back" rather than apologize and ask permission, which could have a far better result.
I've ended up teaching my students a lot about copyright, creative commons, and fair use at school this year. It's a necesarry addition to my music technology class, since the students manipulate music and images every day, and maintain their own websites. The hardest point to make with them is based around OTHER people mis-labeling copyright. For instance, all of these images are shared under creative commons copyright on flickrcc.bluemountains.net:
It's hard to convince my kids that these images are NOT fair use, even if somebody thought they should post them on creative commons. It's so complicated!
In the "band director" world, a strong example that I think of when I'm feeling hesitant to ask if I can use something is New York City's PS22 Choir (check them out on You Tube:
This is a fifth grade choir which sings all current pop music. Because the kids know and like the songs, they are more passionate and it's resulted in an amazingly successful program. This music teacher shares in interviews and on their choir blog how he is amazed over and over as artists give permission for their songs to be used. But seeing these videos and how "into it" these kids are, who wouldn't want their songs to be sung by these young people?
Creative commons copyright truly needs to be our future. And - I think this goes back to some of the messages that the Zander's share in their book - don't be afraid to ask, let those around you be a contribution, live passionately and empower others with that passion, share in the energy of everything (and all the art) around you...
I responded:
Erin, I had not heard anything about the Obama Hope poster before this. I did a little research, and was actually quite stunned to find that in this day and age, someone would seriously just swipe something off the internet and alter it for a profit and/or mass distribution without consulting the originator of the image/video/audio, etc. From the comments of the photographer, one can see that he likely would have agreed to the use for the purposes, and this whole thing could've been avoided. I think that in the digital age, there are so many blurred lines in regards to copyright and even with creative commons licensing, there's some gray areas. Like all the images you shared from Flickr, one doesn't necessarily own the image if it's a screen shot or photograph of another image, but again, there needs to be a lot more clarification for the public at large, and specifically students.
No comments:
Post a Comment