Artists don’t profit, rights holders don’t get it
Misunderstanding copyright law doesn’t help anyone, especially if it’s the supposed rights’ owners that don’t get it. Instead, amidst all the so-called creative industry’s lying propaganda and campaigns of disinformation, it only adds more confusion.
In October, Ralph Lauren hilariously tried to use DMCA takedown notices against websites ridiculing an immensely bad digital manipulation in one of their adverts.
Their only success came through a hosting company which responds to takedown notices with automatic compliance, out of fear – instilled by years of propaganda – of being taken to court. Ironically, because of Ralph Lauren’s own actions, the supposedly offending picture will be around the internet forever.
The “Church” of Scientology, in their turn, have made it a habit of using copyright and trademark law against people using their name and even claim the fairly common name Hubbard as a trademark. They make a point out of threatening people who publish supposedly ’secret’ material online, again claiming copyright infringement.
Still in the USA, some yoga teacher has managed to copyright a sequence of yoga routines. The US Copyright Office seems to have forgotten that these are not copyrightable under current US law.
Painfully less funny, though, is the confiscation of cheaper generic medication destined for Africa by Belgian Customs officials (mirror, Google translation). The NGO Oxfam says they think the seizures happened because of false claims of ‘intellectual property’ (a term to avoid) or patent violations, with Belgian Customs being pressured by the pharmaceutical industry (who, of course, only want the best for all of us).
But hey, we need these laws to protect the companies, authors and artists, right? Else we wouldn’t have music, books or art, right?
No.
When best-selling author Lynn Viehl revealed her royalty statements, she showed the world that the publisher takes the profit – not the author. And unfortunately for authors the world over, the publisher will continue to take most of the profit for many years to come.
Three serving UK soldiers thought it’d be a good idea to release a CD of which the proceeds would go to charities supporting injured servicemen (because, apparently, the UK’s Ministry Of Defence can’t be bothered). Unfortunately for them and the charities, only a disgustingly small amount goes to charity (mirror) – the rest goes straight to industry executives whose pockets already bulge with $100 bills.
Obviously, the industry needs to take this much profit because of all the evil pirates, right? Well, no. Digital filesharing doesn’t hurt the industry as much as it would like to claim, and as it turns out, alleged copyright terrorists actually buy more music (mirror).
The industry’s insistence to keep to their old ways of business is suicide, and apparently it’s clear to everyone but them. They desperately use any law they can find to scare people into their way of thinking, just so they can keep up their disgustingly high profits (of which, of course, the artist sees very little).
The industry needs to modernise and stop their ridiculous lies for their own good. That’s the theory, anyway: lucky for them they’re good friends with our politicians, and can get their own laws passed, as opposed to laws that would benefit both the people and the artist.