Copyright

It seems that copyright (and "intellectual property" in general) is in the news a fair bit lately. Canadian parliament is threatening to pass a highly restrictive "DCMA" style law a la the USA.

As a photographer, I value my work. I do not want someone else taking my art to promote their product, for example, but on the other hand, I do not want to have all art hidden away and unaccessable to the world or, especially, future generations.
A common argument is that Walt Disney's original cartoon, "Steamboat Willy" is still under copyright. In other words, it is illegal to show a cartoon that our grandparents enjoyed as kids. Put in perspective, imagine if Shakespeare could not have written Julius Caesar because the original story was not available. Or if Mozart could not have written his operas because the stories he based them on were tied up in legal knots. Please explain to me how this "promotes the arts".

All art is based on the work of others before. In fact many great works were meant as tributes to masters. My fear is that historians will look back on this century as a second dark ages. Where instead of religion holding all power over publishing works, mega-corporations hold artists hostage.

I read a reply on slashdot that may be on the right track (I lost the link) that advocates aboloshing copyright altogether. maybe the pendulum has to swing the other way for a while to restore balance. It may be rough for artists, but then most artists do what they do for love rather than money...

links:
- Against Intellectual Monopoly

Stuff....

I have said it before, I am not a writer. I am very visual.
I was out this morning with my camera when someone came up to me to ask what I was taking a picture of. I couldn't really explain. I tried to talk about lines and colour, but they just gave me a blank look. Now if they were to see the image, could they then see?

This has happened to me before with photographers as well. I was out taking photos and saw the image below. My friend asked me what I saw. Later he was amazed. He appreciated the final image, but he could not see it beforehand.



I guess I will stick to photography....

Happy New Year

Wow, it is the end of a decade (yes I know the decade officially starts 2011) a lot has happened in the last 10 years. I have lived in at least 11 places, worked for 7 companies, and generally embraced change.
The world outside has embraced this change as well. In the technology arena we have seen the emergence of ipods and cheap, portable computers. Politically the world has seen turmoil and huge changes. Socially we are much more connected via email, internet sites, and cell phones. We are arguably changing faster than ever before in history. Pretty amazing actually...

In this upcoming decade, I hope to get my photography to come into its own, both as a business and as an artistic expression. My two children will be growing up and starting their own lives. I am looking forward to it.

New Photos

Yes, I know, I don't write here very much. A lot of things have been happening. I have started a new job, which has been a huge challenge (and eats a lot of time...) but I have been trying to get out to photograph.
Some of my photos are on my website at http:klughammer.dnsalias.com. Please have a look, and rate them...

Legal Mumbo Jumbo

I found this on Slashdot as a comment on legaleas:

This is like describing cup of coffee as a "insulating ceramic material vessel for the transportation of central nervous system-stimulant-laden liquids of temperatures approaching gradual evaporation adapted to both manipulation and imbibation for the purposes of maximum early-hours alertness and/or circadian rhythm modulation."

I think I will just have a coffee...

Moving

So I have moved into my new place. It is a bit smaller than my last place, but nicer (except for all the damn boxes waiting to be unpacked...) Some day I will be able to get out and get some photography done...
Oh, and go Canucks...

Artist Copyright

I have been thinking a bit lately about copyright. Specifically, the use of others' art to create new art. South of the border, the US seems very concerned and protective about copyright, especially music, movie, and software copyright, with RIAA, MPAA, WTFAA, etc suing everyone they can drag into court.
In the fine art world, copying a work is considered an honour to the original artist. Homage to ...
In fact, when you get right down to it, all art is based to some degree on what has come before. We all learn from the masters, and hopefully extrapolate so the next generation can build on what we have done.
Maybe this is the attraction for me of open source software. Any programmer can build on what has been done before, Thus learning from the talent (and mistakes) of the previous generation.
In the music world, there seems to be a real dichotomy. On the one hand, it is illegal to copy music. You can be sued for exorbitant sums for downloading one song from the internet. On the other hand, a lot of "artists" blatantly copy songs from a couple of generations ago, yet they add little to the original. Of course there are exceptions to this. If it didn't spoil my argument, I might even say many, if not most renditions are unique.
As an artist myself, I don't want anyone using my work as their own, however I would be pretty excited if someone wanted to use one of my photographs as a starting point to build an image of their own. (of course depending if I like the resultant image, and there is the rub...) I want to maintain control of my creations, but the reason I take photos is to share my vision of the world. If someone else were to use my images in a compilation, I would like to see what they could do, but I also think I would want a percentage of any money they make from the image.
I guess there isn't an easy answer.
but after all that, I still want to share my vision. Here is an image I took recently at Francis King park.