MY OFFICIAL POSITION ON COPYRIGHT

Now that I’m a full-time free culture activist, some have expressed the concern, “You don’t think there should be any copyright at all!  You want to take away my right to protect my intellectual property!”

Let me assure you this is not true.

I completely support your right to copy-restrict your works. The more you copyright (restrict access to) your work, the more wide-open the field is for free culture like Sita Sings the Blues. Open-licensed work has a tremendous competitive advantage over copy-restricted work. So by all means, please “protect” your “property.”

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See you on the other side of success!

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11 thoughts on “MY OFFICIAL POSITION ON COPYRIGHT”

  1. My opinion as to why people would still support copyright is that first off, they might not have heard of Creative Commons, and second, they want to make money from their creation, but they don’t want to run the risk of anyone else earning money from it. Of course, there are also stupid reasons like not having a Creative Commons symbol in the character map, but that doesn’t really count. *cough*

    As for me, I’ll just be happy to have my stuff known about, not have it turned into porn, and that I’m somewhere in the credits. :3

  2. Watching the great epic Ramayana and then googling it up I somehow got into your site. I myself was highly impressed when I saw the episode when Ram tells Sita, ” Kings have been known to have many wives, but I have made a decision not to bring anyone else into my life, I make a promise to have only one wife-That is you Sita” Sita than touches Ram’s feet to which Ram says , ” Do not touch my feet, your place is in my heart, I will treat you as my friend not as a dasi ( Dasi was the term used to describe that women had to serve her husband). ”
    Many episodes later,after the forest exile, the kidnapping etc, Ram orders Lakshman to send Sita to the Ashram, he does so not because he mis-trusts Sita, but because he has to follow his Duty of a King- to do what is right for his people. It may sound absurd to us in today’s time but thousand’s of year’s ago Duty was the most important. That is why Ram himself left his luxorious life in the Palace and went to live in the forest. For Duty he did not even care for his own well being. Than how can we conclude that sending Sita to ashram was wrong by Ram’s part? The people of his kingdom did not trust the queen, and Ram felt it was his duty to care about his people. Yes it sounds hideous, but that was a different Era. We have to judge them according to their mindset’s not ours.
    Why is it that I see Ram as a person with positive values, who followed what he was told since he was a kid- To act in the interest of his people. When Kings enjoyed in the glory of having multiple queens, Ram chose to have only one.
    He could have easily married someone else after sending Sita to the ashram. But he did not. Don’t you think he too was suffering?
    He could have chosen to leave Sita with Ravan and get married to someone else, But he choose to go and save her.
    All his actions make me beleive that he was a Man with values. Why do u see otherwise?

    It is easy to compare Ram to your husband-who did something cruel to you. But for GOD’s sake do not mis-interpret what Ram is. Please don’t change Ram’s image.

    Regards,
    Jessica.

  3. I just discovered Sita Sings the Blues. Just wonderfull, not least because it features my all time favourite singer: Annette Hanshaw. Keep up the good work.
    Best Wishes Roy Maybery

  4. Hi Jessica,
    While a part of me agrees with your assessment a part of me does not. Nina,just as everybody else is free to draw her own take on Ram. She is definitely not the first and I am sure not the last either.

    There was a 2001 movie Lajja http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lajja_(film) where’s Ram and the societal questions have been asked by the protaganist in the movie.

    Both are creative works and she has every right to her interpretation of people/events etc.

    The only shame on the matter is it would be controversial here in India as the society is still male-dominated.

    A male 🙂

  5. im for copyright rights, i dont want somebody to make money from my work (my property), my work (my property) is my right and nobodys else. so if i make a song but somebody else does a remix of it he’s violated my work, my property, my labour.

  6. Copyright law and practice is outdated and in need of an overhaul. Unfortunately, much else also needs reform and we will have to deal with the law as it is for some time. The open-licensed approach is a fresh innovation which should help move the process forward.

    Sita Sings the Blues is a masterpiece.

  7. Copy write is dead most people pirate all the time, and your right, its the pirated stuff that gets the most attention.

    Our modern little property based experimental society just didn’t work it inhibits development too much … think what would happen if you could not use Newtons work in school for fear of copy write, I think all of use would still be in physics class now trying to figure our where the cannon ball lands ;P … so we should chuck it away and find something that does work. I am glad to see more people doing this. I come from the land of open source software which is much the same but far more work is open and free (by the way the licenses are good too, check out the MIT GPL & LGPL licenses if you have not heard of them)

    Anyway just like the software world people will just “stealing” the work as has been done for 1000s of years in every profession and there isn’t much anyone can do about it if they wanted to, which will force the laws or distribution model to catch up eventually as we see with things like googles advertising based approach I guess.

    Good Job, Keep up the fight.

  8. Hey Lavdrim,

    It’s been over a year. How’s that working out for you?

  9. Hello Nina. I can not speak English. I’m using the translator. It is a poor resource. I will endeavor to learn that language. I’d like to know more about you. Questions that cannot be asked here. Can I send an email? His work at SEDER-MASOCHISM is sensational. A vision that is perhaps simple, but complex. Well, I am not going to prolong the subject. The main reason is to get your attention and you may have the opportunity to get to know her better. I leave my strong hug for you and wishing you Strength Always. Com carinho: Paulo Soares (Domendron)

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