Week 1 Peer Response 1

Angela Alipour

When push comes to shove the copy write laws are all about the money. Who can get the most money and how. What’s wrong with someone taking your work and creating something else out of it as long as they give you the credit for being the inspiration of their creation? Especially when they can make it better. If we can do this with text why not film and music? Don’t those people get paid enough? Actually I think that many of them get overpaid.

One of the people that spoke in the video said that an artist needs copy write laws as an incentive to create. Yeah, right! When someone is creating they are not thinking about copy write laws. They are creating.

With the Fair Use law it’s good to know that there is a law that can cover your behind if you need it too. Of course it has to meet the criteria of critical comment, teaching, parody, and news reporting. Even under these circumstances one needs to be careful.

I was happy to know that Creative Commons is available for creators. The saying two brains are better than one is what came to mind when I saw this video. Sharing a personal idea or creation with another person can sometimes cause the other person to elaborate on that idea and the final result can be spectacular.

As I’ve been watching more and more videos about this I find that the music industry seems to have a real issue about copy writing. Wish I would have known about Creative Commons during the FSO music class.

My Reply

It can get to be a tough situation for artists.  As a working artist/choreographer, I have conflicting views.  On one hand, I could create a choreographic work, then someone else could modify a few steps and call it their own.  Why would anyone pay for original choreography if someone else could restage a work for half the price with limited changes and call it their own.  On the other hand, as an artist who likes to use the musical works of others, I get caught in a copyright snag because I cannot use someone else's music for my work without paying and getting permission which is hard on all dance companies because we are making so little money to begin with.

Week 1 Reading: Copyright infringement

I find the issues surrounding copyright law fascinating.  I am particularly interested because much of my career revolves around these laws.  As a professional choreographer, my own intellectual property is protected but I run into massive risks when using music to accompany my work.  Trying to publish or share my work is impossible without original music, which is unaffordable in most cases.  The video “Good Copy, Bad Copy” was eye-opening.  I am extremely baffled by how so many artists are able to produce work that is technically infringing on copyright.  It sounds like all remixes and remakes of songs are stealing intellectual property.  Copyright law is a jumble of pitfalls and loopholes.  In order to pay artists for their work, all 3000 songs on my iPod have been purchased on hardcopy or through iTunes, but I have on many occasions used the work of artists as accompaniment for my work which is technically a no-no.  

Image courtesy of Morguefile