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May 10, 2004
Copywrongs and Godwin's Law
Posted by Ernest Miller
Ubercyberprof Larry Lessig has posted an image on his blog by artist Wulfius Khan that equates copyright law with facism, Copywrong Facism (to tinker is to imagine). Lessig, in an understated post, states that the image "links [Lessig's Free Culture] argument to Ed Felten’s Freedom to Tinker argument in a way I hadn’t quite seen." [link in original]
Frankly, I'm glad that Lessig hasn't seen the argument put that way before. The image features a copyright logo that is clearly reminscent of the Nazi flag. If that was too subtle to make the point, the image also features a photo of a Nazi book burning. I assume that Lessig accidentally overlooked these aspects of the image and focused on the text.
I don't like currrent copyright law. I think current copyright law does a great disservice to culture. However, I don't think that the people on the other side of the argument are the cultural equivalent of Nazis. I also don't think the copyright debate needs to sink into another iteration of Godwin's Law.
Comments (6)
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1. Seth Finkelstein on May 11, 2004 7:27 AM writes...
Ehh, don't be one of the Godwin's Law Nazis :-)
Permalink to Comment2. greglas on May 11, 2004 9:05 AM writes...
I agree with Ernest.
Permalink to Comment3. Wulfius-Khan on May 12, 2004 9:00 AM writes...
Hi, this is Wulfius-Khan. The artist in question.
I state the instance of Godwins law in the writeup;
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/7141285/
Personaly, I do not think that people who enforce excessive copyright are Nazis.
But sometimes an artist has to use a hyperbolea to make a point. There are few symbols in our culture that need no explaining like Nazis.
An image stating 'Excessive copyright enforcement is not nice' would have no impact.
What inspired the incident is my previous work 'POISON BOX', using 2 news photos was deleted from the site because of 'Copyright violations'.
I had tried to argue saying that the use of the photos very clearly and unabigiously fit with the 'Fair use' criteria, but was told;
"We OVER enforce the law for our own protection."
Imagine the police shooting someone reaching for a wallet for example. Wait, that does happen. :(
Permalink to Comment4. cypherpunk on May 12, 2004 2:58 PM writes...
That's a good point. Could you work on an image which presents anti intellectual property people as communists? Their motto could be "(intellectual) property is theft". You could have Lessig as the Great Leader of the "Creative Common-ists", holding the hammer and sickle flag, surrounded by admirers. That would be another good example of hyperbole, don't you think?
Permalink to Comment5. Kaa on May 12, 2004 3:19 PM writes...
Cypherpunk, look here:
http://modernhumorist.com/mh/0004/propaganda/mp3.cfm
Permalink to Comment6. Wulfius-Khan on May 12, 2004 6:30 PM writes...
Thats a good idea Cypherpunk.
However;
1) As Kaa says, the idea has been done already. And its hilarious :D
2) I do believe that the pendelum has swung too far to the cause of the copyright owners. Not just my opinion.
I believe in balance and when I see that the multi-billion dollar profit multinationals with their hordes of lawyers need help to fight a few academics, writers and civil libertarians you can be sure that I will put my mind to redresing the balance :)
Thanks for your comments.
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