"Publish it, Write it, Sing it, Swing it, Yodel it, We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."

-Woodie Guthrie

What is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property (IP) is original creative work, such as inventions, music, brand or design, that has been developed to such a stage that it can be owned in the same way as physical property.

Intellectual property laws are designed to protect different forms of intangible subject matter, although in some cases there is a degree of overlap.

• Copyright may subsist in creative and artistic works (e.g. books, movies, music, paintings, photographs, and software) and give a copyright holder the exclusive right to control reproduction or adaptation of such works for a certain period of time.
• A patent may be granted for a new, useful, and non-obvious invention, and gives the patent holder an exclusive right to commercially exploit the invention for a certain period of time (typically 20 years from the filing date of a patent application).
• A trademark is a distinctive sign which is used to distinguish the products or services of different businesses.
  

What is the intent of Copyright?

As stated in the US Constitution, the Intellectual Property Clause gives Congress the authority:

"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."

So its important to note that the intent is to promote the dissemination of creative expression not to suppress it!

What is the public domain?

ABSOLUTELY FREE! MUSIC, TEXT AND ART!! COPY ALL YOU WANT!! If you saw an advertisement like this, you might wonder, "What's the catch?" When it comes to the public domain, there is no catch. If a book, song, movie or artwork is in the public domain, then it is not protected by intellectual property laws (such as copyright, trademark or patent law) --which means it's free for you to use without permission.

As a general rule, most works enter the public domain because of old age.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) [1998] is a United States copyright law which criminalizes production and dissemination of technology that can circumvent measures taken to protect copyright, not merely infringement of copyright itself, and heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet.

Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act

The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998—alternatively known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act or pejoratively as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act—extended copyright terms in the United States by 20 years. Before the act (under the Copyright Act of 1976), copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship; the act extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and 95 years respectively.

What is Fair Use?

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test.

1. the purpose and character of the use; [transformative (parody, critique) vs. derivative]
2. the nature of the copyrighted work; [factual vs. fictional works - zapruder film in kennedy assassination]
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; [less used the more likely it is fair use]
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. [direct market substitute?, harm beyond direct substitution - ie, licensing]

What are some risks of over-zealous intellectual property laws?

risks of over zealousness:

• We engage in self-censorship because we think we might get sued, even if there's no imminent threat
• We censor ourselves after backing down from a frivolous lawsuit
• Our freedoms our limited as an ever-growing list of things becomes privatized (Donald Trump has trademarked "You're Fired" AND his hand gesture.

morality - live saving drugs for HIV, terminal seeds (Monsanto)

extremism - Amazon 1-click

creativity - human genome project, discovery vs. intention

Next class - other models: copyleft, creative commons

LINKS

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/index.html

http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/intellectualProperty/cprtindx.htm

Copyright Criminals
http://ia300128.us.archive.org/1/items/criminal02mov/criminal_02.mov

http://phalacrocorax.informatik.hu-berlin.de/fr/09_20h_ReadWriteSociety.mp4

Illegal Art
http://www.illegal-art.org/index.html

JibJab
http://www.jibjab.com/

Remix Squared - remix culture
turntable - an object of consumption transformed into an object of production.

examples, jeff koons, danger mouse grey album, smells like teen booty

Smells like teen booty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLqqTHAizts

http://www.daveamason.com/april/mp3/Soulwax%5FTeenBooty%2Emp3

Manamana
http://www.noolmusic.com/blogs/YouTube_Viral_Videos4_-_Muppets_-_Manamana.shtml

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0neAHeBc_Zc

Sony Bravia
http://youtube.com/watch?v=oP5J4W5GQ3w
http://www.bravia-advert.com/commercial/braviacommhigh.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4396069753768297433
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CALanMi9HHM

Anime Remix
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/

Brokeback to the Future
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfODSPIYwpQ

Shining Remix
http://www.apollopony.net/trailers/