1 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:12,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 2 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:16,000 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 3 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and How the Tech 4 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:24,600 Speaker 1: are You. This episode, originally published May seventeenth, twenty twenty one, 5 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:27,760 Speaker 1: is called Copyright and Fair Use. I feel it's always 6 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 1: important to revisit this topic because it's a it's one 7 00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:33,720 Speaker 1: that's a little complicated, and I think a lot of 8 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:37,959 Speaker 1: people have misconceptions about what fair use is and how 9 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,360 Speaker 1: it works. So enjoy and I'll chat with you a 10 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:46,839 Speaker 1: little bit at the very end. It has been a 11 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:49,920 Speaker 1: while since I've done an episode about the concepts of 12 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: copyright and fair use, and after I keep seeing the 13 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: phrase no copyright infringement intended over and over on places 14 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,960 Speaker 1: like you Tube and Instagram, I figure it's a good 15 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:07,039 Speaker 1: time to tackle this again because people continue to pretend 16 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:14,440 Speaker 1: like copyright infringement only applies under very specific circumstances and 17 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,480 Speaker 1: that with just a little bit of verbiage you can 18 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: get around it, when really the opposite is true. And 19 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,000 Speaker 1: since the Internet and technology allows for more opportunities for 20 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:29,959 Speaker 1: copyright infringement, and because various governments and around the world 21 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:33,760 Speaker 1: have passed legislation to, you know, specifically tackle copyright infringement, 22 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:40,360 Speaker 1: and companies have lobbied endlessly for more restrictive copyright rules. 23 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 1: I think it fits the scope of tech stuff, particularly 24 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:48,400 Speaker 1: since a lot of these laws were formed in reaction 25 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:53,440 Speaker 1: to changes in technology. So first, let's kind of define 26 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:59,400 Speaker 1: what copyright is now. Essentially, copyright guarantees the creator of 27 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 1: a work or an entity that has been designated by 28 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: the creator of the work, the right to profit off 29 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:11,840 Speaker 1: of that work, the right to make copies of that 30 00:02:11,919 --> 00:02:16,400 Speaker 1: work and then distribute or sell them, or you know, 31 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 1: you just you own that intellectual property. No one else 32 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:22,800 Speaker 1: can come and make copies of it without your permission. 33 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 1: The works in this case range from the written word 34 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:32,919 Speaker 1: to music, to paintings to sculpture to digital files. I mean, 35 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,720 Speaker 1: copyright now applies to lots of stuff. Clearly, it didn't 36 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:38,560 Speaker 1: apply to all of that in the beginning, but something 37 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:42,600 Speaker 1: that has evaulved over time. It does not include inventions. 38 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:46,600 Speaker 1: Those are covered under patent law. And then you also 39 00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 1: have things like trademarks, which make things more complicated. I 40 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:54,840 Speaker 1: might talk about trademarks and copyright in a future episode. 41 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:58,320 Speaker 1: To kind of talk about how those complicate things because 42 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:02,360 Speaker 1: companies have tried to use trade in order to extend 43 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:09,440 Speaker 1: copyright protection. But trademark's last in perpetuity. Copyright only lasts 44 00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:12,880 Speaker 1: a certain amount of time, at least in theory. We'll 45 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 1: get to all that. So, along with the right to 46 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:20,600 Speaker 1: profit from intellectual property comes with it protections against others 47 00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:22,840 Speaker 1: who are taking a work and profiting off of it 48 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:27,200 Speaker 1: without permission. Now you can see the value of this 49 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:31,520 Speaker 1: concept right away, I imagine. So let's say you are 50 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 1: a musician and you write a song. It was your work. 51 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:39,080 Speaker 1: You created the whole piece, You wrote the music, and 52 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:42,400 Speaker 1: you wrote the lyrics, and you plan to earn money 53 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:45,280 Speaker 1: through this song. Maybe you're going to record it to 54 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:49,120 Speaker 1: some form of media and then sell copies of the song. 55 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:52,480 Speaker 1: So you file the copyright for the song, which gives 56 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:56,640 Speaker 1: you the exclusive rights to make copies of it in 57 00:03:56,680 --> 00:04:00,520 Speaker 1: whatever format you like, whether it's digital files or physical 58 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:04,720 Speaker 1: media or even like sheet music. You can charge whatever 59 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:07,680 Speaker 1: you like for your work, though obviously if you go 60 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:11,400 Speaker 1: bonkers and you ask for ridiculously high price, you aren't 61 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:14,120 Speaker 1: likely to get a lot of takers. You also have 62 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:18,040 Speaker 1: the protection should someone else start making copies of your 63 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: song without your permission. Maybe they are performing it themselves, 64 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:26,040 Speaker 1: in which case they should secure a license first, or 65 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:29,920 Speaker 1: maybe they're taking your original recording and just duplicating it. 66 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:34,159 Speaker 1: So let's say that you created an MP three file 67 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:37,760 Speaker 1: and they just copy the MP three file endlessly and 68 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:40,480 Speaker 1: start either giving it away or selling it to people. 69 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:45,360 Speaker 1: You could sue that person, and in court you could 70 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,719 Speaker 1: prove that you hold the copyright to that piece of music, 71 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:52,360 Speaker 1: and assuming the court agrees that the copyright is legitimate, 72 00:04:52,839 --> 00:04:56,680 Speaker 1: you could then seek damages against the person or entity 73 00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:01,200 Speaker 1: that made the unauthorized copies of your work. Music is 74 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:04,880 Speaker 1: actually really a special case because you can have multiple 75 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:08,720 Speaker 1: copyrights on the work. You could have one for the lyrics, 76 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:12,080 Speaker 1: then you could have another for the musical composition itself, 77 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:15,279 Speaker 1: and that would mean that someone who wanted to play 78 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:19,800 Speaker 1: your music but change the lyrics would still potentially be 79 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 1: liable for copyright violations. But we're going to get back 80 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: to that a little bit later in this episode, but 81 00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:27,880 Speaker 1: it is something to keep in mind. However, Then there 82 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:31,279 Speaker 1: are such things as mechanical licenses. This sets out the 83 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:36,400 Speaker 1: rules for stuff like playing recorded music in particular places. 84 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:39,560 Speaker 1: So if you've ever been to a restaurant or a 85 00:05:39,640 --> 00:05:44,000 Speaker 1: theater and you've heard music being played over the sound system, 86 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:49,520 Speaker 1: chances are that that place of business has paid out 87 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:52,840 Speaker 1: a license fee in order to be able to do that. 88 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:58,120 Speaker 1: Intellectual property rights get pretty complicated. It also depends upon 89 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:00,800 Speaker 1: the size of the venue. I might have to do 90 00:06:00,839 --> 00:06:03,200 Speaker 1: a future episode to kind of talk about all the exceptions, 91 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:06,440 Speaker 1: because as I said, it does get complicated, and in 92 00:06:06,480 --> 00:06:10,279 Speaker 1: some cases, if it's a very small venue, they can 93 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:12,800 Speaker 1: sometimes be exempt from having to pay the same sort 94 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:16,000 Speaker 1: of license fees that larger venues have to pay. And 95 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:18,200 Speaker 1: part of the argument there is that the number of 96 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: people who would actually experience the music is much smaller 97 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 1: because the venue is smaller. Anyway, in the old days, 98 00:06:26,880 --> 00:06:30,919 Speaker 1: as in before the printing press, copyright wasn't really that 99 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:33,400 Speaker 1: big of a thing, Like, there wasn't a big concern 100 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:38,760 Speaker 1: for it. There were predecessors for formal copyright, but truthfully, 101 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:41,880 Speaker 1: there wasn't much occasion to use them because the act 102 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,920 Speaker 1: of copying a work involved actually making a copy out 103 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:50,159 Speaker 1: by hand, handwriting the copy of a written work. This 104 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:53,719 Speaker 1: was a painstaking process and not something that could be 105 00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:57,559 Speaker 1: done on any sort of scale. And so copyright wasn't 106 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:00,640 Speaker 1: as huge a concern just because infringement it's was not 107 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:03,640 Speaker 1: something that was easy to do. Add to that the 108 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 1: fact that much of the world's population was illiterate and 109 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:10,160 Speaker 1: there just wasn't a foundation for copyright infringement to really 110 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:13,680 Speaker 1: take hold. Then a smarty pants named Johann Gutenberg had 111 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:16,600 Speaker 1: to go and invent the movable type printing press, at 112 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:20,120 Speaker 1: least the European version. I should stress that Europe because 113 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 1: other parts of the world were actually further advanced with 114 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:25,360 Speaker 1: printing technologies than Europe was. But this is the one 115 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: that Western cultures tend to talk about because we get 116 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:33,480 Speaker 1: a little myopic. But I'll set aside the commentary. So 117 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:36,760 Speaker 1: with the printing press, it became possible to set the 118 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:40,880 Speaker 1: type on the press and then print out sheets one 119 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:44,400 Speaker 1: after the other in relatively quick succession. Now, it still 120 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:47,600 Speaker 1: took time to set the press between pages because you 121 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:49,440 Speaker 1: had to change all the type out right, You had 122 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: to remove all the type, set the type again, and 123 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:57,200 Speaker 1: then print the next sheet. So you would typically use 124 00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:00,000 Speaker 1: the press to print a bunch of the same sheet 125 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:03,040 Speaker 1: in a row before you would reset the type and 126 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:05,320 Speaker 1: move on to the next sheet. However, you could also 127 00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:08,600 Speaker 1: use a single large sheet of paper to set out 128 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:13,320 Speaker 1: multiple pages of text, and so you could divide up 129 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:17,440 Speaker 1: the quadrants of a printing press and change the type 130 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:22,280 Speaker 1: up so that you are actually creating multiple pages per press. 131 00:08:22,760 --> 00:08:24,760 Speaker 1: And then you fold the paper in such a way 132 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: that that makes all sense, like if you fold it 133 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:31,160 Speaker 1: once along a vertical line, so you fold it in 134 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:36,520 Speaker 1: half vertically then or along the vertical axis, I should say, 135 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:40,040 Speaker 1: Then you end up with a folio that was a 136 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:43,440 Speaker 1: single large sheet of paper that would have one page 137 00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:46,160 Speaker 1: printed on the left side, one page printed on the 138 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:48,840 Speaker 1: right side. You have a vertical fold in the middle, 139 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:51,360 Speaker 1: and then you can just keep printing those over and 140 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:53,280 Speaker 1: over again, and then you bind a bunch of those 141 00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:57,640 Speaker 1: together and you've got a book. Or you could do 142 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:01,320 Speaker 1: a double fold, and you could have a quarto, which 143 00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:03,440 Speaker 1: would also involve you having to make a cut along 144 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,800 Speaker 1: the horizontal line. But then you've got four pages per sheet, 145 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:10,680 Speaker 1: so you could do that, and that means that with 146 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:16,040 Speaker 1: one press you're effectively printing four pages. Then you let 147 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:17,520 Speaker 1: it dry, you flip it over, and you can print 148 00:09:17,559 --> 00:09:21,720 Speaker 1: another four pages. Very useful. So this was these were 149 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:26,000 Speaker 1: different ways that you could end up creating books fairly quickly. 150 00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:29,800 Speaker 1: The process of publishing became much faster than with people 151 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:33,080 Speaker 1: doing it behind, but there wasn't yet a formalized protection 152 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:36,840 Speaker 1: in place for the creator of the works, and at 153 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 1: this point, the typical approach was for an author to 154 00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:43,040 Speaker 1: receive a flat fee for their work, which would then 155 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:48,000 Speaker 1: go to a book printer to produce, so the printer 156 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:51,000 Speaker 1: would take ownership of that work from that point forward. 157 00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:53,319 Speaker 1: Then it was just a matter of time before other 158 00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:55,720 Speaker 1: printers would get hold of the book and start making 159 00:09:55,760 --> 00:09:58,520 Speaker 1: their own copies, at least for books that proved to 160 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:01,880 Speaker 1: be popular. For all, there really wasn't a whole lot 161 00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:05,640 Speaker 1: of profit in this approach. William Shakespeare, who you know 162 00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:09,479 Speaker 1: you could argue, was one of the greatest English writers, 163 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:13,520 Speaker 1: mostly known for his plays but also his poetry. He 164 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:17,360 Speaker 1: never sought out the printing of his plays. Others would 165 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:19,760 Speaker 1: give it a shot. Either they would try to copy 166 00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:22,959 Speaker 1: down plays as they were being performed and then go 167 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:26,280 Speaker 1: and print what they had transcribed, or they would try 168 00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:29,240 Speaker 1: to get hold of the sides that actors were using 169 00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:31,679 Speaker 1: in their roles, or a combination of the two. It 170 00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:35,200 Speaker 1: was really only after Shakespeare's death that his friends got 171 00:10:35,240 --> 00:10:38,280 Speaker 1: together and did their best to gather his plays and 172 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:41,679 Speaker 1: publish them. Now, based on what I know about Shakespeare, 173 00:10:41,920 --> 00:10:44,439 Speaker 1: I suspect the reason that he did not seek out 174 00:10:44,480 --> 00:10:47,800 Speaker 1: publication of his works was that it really wasn't where 175 00:10:47,800 --> 00:10:50,640 Speaker 1: the money would be for him. He would get a 176 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:54,600 Speaker 1: paid the flat fee for every play he wrote, but 177 00:10:54,640 --> 00:10:58,720 Speaker 1: more importantly, he was a part owner of the theater itself. 178 00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:02,240 Speaker 1: Like the Globe the Rose Theater, he was part of 179 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:05,240 Speaker 1: the company that owned the theater, so that meant he 180 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:08,360 Speaker 1: would actually take a share of the box office. So, 181 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:11,920 Speaker 1: in other words, his main goal was to attract crowds 182 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:15,320 Speaker 1: to the theater. That's where the money was. But you 183 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:18,080 Speaker 1: can bet that if there had been serious money in 184 00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:21,320 Speaker 1: publication back in those days, Shakespeare would have been all 185 00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:23,240 Speaker 1: over it because a quick glance at some of the 186 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:26,560 Speaker 1: lawsuits he was involved with during his lifetime indicates he 187 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:30,880 Speaker 1: had a certain appreciation for the accumulation of wealth. So Shakespeare, 188 00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:35,559 Speaker 1: a great artist also a business guy, and had publishing 189 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:38,960 Speaker 1: been a bigger business for the author, he certainly would 190 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:41,360 Speaker 1: have gone that route. I'm sure of it. Now. The 191 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:45,280 Speaker 1: printing press was a truly transformational piece of technology. It 192 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:49,360 Speaker 1: became easier to produce many copies of a work book. 193 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:54,080 Speaker 1: Printing businesses, which would evolve into true publishing houses, began 194 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:56,880 Speaker 1: to pop up all over Europe, and the powers that be, 195 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:00,720 Speaker 1: that is, the Church and the various governments of Europe, 196 00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:04,800 Speaker 1: viewed book printers as both an asset and a potential threat. 197 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:10,000 Speaker 1: Through the printers, these organizations could spread information quickly. The 198 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:13,280 Speaker 1: Bible was a very early candidate for printing, as the 199 00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:17,400 Speaker 1: Gutenberg Bible proves and governments could use printing presses to 200 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:20,880 Speaker 1: spread information about laws and declarations and that kind of thing. 201 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:24,480 Speaker 1: But printing presses also meant it was easier to print 202 00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:28,560 Speaker 1: stuff that undermined authority. People who had a bone to 203 00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:31,760 Speaker 1: pick with the folks who were in charge could potentially 204 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:35,960 Speaker 1: spread their ideas and maybe find sympathetic souls who shared 205 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:40,760 Speaker 1: those same beliefs. So the printing press could enable existential 206 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:43,719 Speaker 1: threats to the power structure. And this is where we 207 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:49,280 Speaker 1: get a predecessor to copyright. Now, this predecessor wasn't so 208 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:52,160 Speaker 1: much about making sure the author of a book was 209 00:12:52,200 --> 00:12:56,400 Speaker 1: fairly compensated. Instead, it was more about keeping printing houses 210 00:12:56,480 --> 00:13:00,320 Speaker 1: under control. The basic idea was that any business that 211 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:04,199 Speaker 1: wished to print materials had to first secure an official 212 00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:09,880 Speaker 1: license from the government of that region. These licenses typically 213 00:13:09,920 --> 00:13:12,840 Speaker 1: meant that a specific printer would be responsible for the 214 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:17,240 Speaker 1: printing of particular works to the exclusion of all other printers. 215 00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:20,720 Speaker 1: So you might say that this one printer can print 216 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:24,680 Speaker 1: this one book, and no other printer in the region 217 00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:27,599 Speaker 1: is allowed to do that, so they have a monopoly 218 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:30,880 Speaker 1: on that specific title. In fact, they called the monopolies. 219 00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:34,520 Speaker 1: These agreements would last a set number of years, which 220 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:38,319 Speaker 1: wasn't too different from the concept of modern copyrights. If 221 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:41,160 Speaker 1: any other printer was found to produce a work that 222 00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:45,760 Speaker 1: some other printer had exclusive rights to, that matter could 223 00:13:45,800 --> 00:13:49,119 Speaker 1: go to court, But this was all about the printing houses, 224 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:54,280 Speaker 1: not authors. England passed its first actual copyright law in 225 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:57,800 Speaker 1: seventeen ten. This law changed things quite a bit. A 226 00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:01,120 Speaker 1: publisher would have a fourteen year period of exclusive rights 227 00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:04,840 Speaker 1: to publish any new book. Existing books that the printing 228 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:09,000 Speaker 1: house was already printing would enjoy protection for twenty one years. 229 00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:12,320 Speaker 1: After that, the author of the work could choose to 230 00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:16,280 Speaker 1: renew the copyright if the author was still alive. Otherwise 231 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:20,520 Speaker 1: the work would enter into the public domain, meaning anyone 232 00:14:20,680 --> 00:14:23,000 Speaker 1: would be legally allowed to make a copy of that 233 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:26,160 Speaker 1: work or use it in any way they liked. There 234 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:29,320 Speaker 1: were no longer any protections on that piece of work, 235 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 1: and it was available for any public use. The United 236 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:36,720 Speaker 1: States wouldn't get its first true copyright law until nearly 237 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:40,600 Speaker 1: a century later. But let's be fair, there was no 238 00:14:40,680 --> 00:14:43,200 Speaker 1: such thing as the United States in seventeen ten, so 239 00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:45,960 Speaker 1: I'm going to cut the young nation some slack here. 240 00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:48,840 Speaker 1: The copyright law of the US followed closely in the 241 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:52,040 Speaker 1: footsteps of the Copyright Act of Britain, which was also 242 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:55,440 Speaker 1: known as the Statute of Anne as in Queen Anne. 243 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:59,000 Speaker 1: So the way that the US law worked was that 244 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:01,080 Speaker 1: an author would read just through their work with the 245 00:15:01,160 --> 00:15:05,400 Speaker 1: US District Court of their particular region, and they would 246 00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:08,800 Speaker 1: in return receive an exclusive copyright for fourteen years, with 247 00:15:08,840 --> 00:15:11,920 Speaker 1: the option to renew for a second fourteen year period, 248 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:14,880 Speaker 1: and after those twenty eight years, assuming that you actually 249 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:18,040 Speaker 1: renewed your copyright, the work would then enter into the 250 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:21,480 Speaker 1: public domain with the Statute of Ann and the Copyright 251 00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:24,000 Speaker 1: Act of seventeen ninety in the US or at the 252 00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:26,320 Speaker 1: point where authors would get a little more protection and 253 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:29,360 Speaker 1: a chance to benefit more from their own work. It 254 00:15:29,400 --> 00:15:32,480 Speaker 1: was no longer the case of a one time flat fee. 255 00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:36,200 Speaker 1: In every instance now I say authors, but often we're 256 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:40,200 Speaker 1: really still talking about publishers. Here. The publisher retains the 257 00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:42,880 Speaker 1: copyright because the copyright allows the publisher to, you know, 258 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:47,160 Speaker 1: publish the works. Otherwise, the author would have to grant 259 00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:50,040 Speaker 1: permission for each printing. You'd have to have a license 260 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:52,840 Speaker 1: for it. It all gets clunky, right. If the author 261 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:56,640 Speaker 1: has exclusive copyright to their work, they have to grant 262 00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:01,360 Speaker 1: permission to whichever entity is reading copies of that work. 263 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,840 Speaker 1: You often see this reflected today in ways that are 264 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:09,280 Speaker 1: kind of confusing. When you agree to certain platforms, there's 265 00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:12,160 Speaker 1: language there that seems to suggest that anything you post 266 00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:18,160 Speaker 1: on that platform is that platform's property. But usually the 267 00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:21,200 Speaker 1: reasoning for the language is to make sure that the 268 00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:25,480 Speaker 1: platform has the necessary permission to display whatever it is 269 00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:29,600 Speaker 1: you're posting, because otherwise, every single time you posted, you 270 00:16:29,600 --> 00:16:32,400 Speaker 1: would have to have some sort of licensing agreement or 271 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:36,680 Speaker 1: something that would give permission to the platform to actually 272 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:40,800 Speaker 1: display the thing you wrote. It gets pretty complicated now. 273 00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:43,760 Speaker 1: The same would be true for most music produced in 274 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:47,480 Speaker 1: the modern era. The copyright isn't necessarily held by the 275 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:51,200 Speaker 1: artist but by a music label. And it's kind of 276 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:53,680 Speaker 1: like how Thomas Edison made sure that his name was 277 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:57,680 Speaker 1: on every patent produced out of his business. He might 278 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:00,680 Speaker 1: not have had a direct hand in the creation of reinvention. 279 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:03,640 Speaker 1: In fact, we know that he didn't have a direct 280 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:06,119 Speaker 1: hand in a lot of them, but he sure as 281 00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:08,760 Speaker 1: heck made sure that his signature was on the patent 282 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:10,440 Speaker 1: to every single one, so that he had a right 283 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:14,560 Speaker 1: to each of them anyway. One of the consequences of 284 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:17,119 Speaker 1: all of this is that, to this day, getting the 285 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:20,600 Speaker 1: permission of an author or artist in order to use 286 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:25,840 Speaker 1: their work typically isn't enough. That's because in many cases 287 00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:31,440 Speaker 1: that individual creator doesn't actually hold the copyright to the work. 288 00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:35,960 Speaker 1: It's more likely that some corporate entity will hold the 289 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:39,959 Speaker 1: copyright on behalf of that creator. So you really have 290 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:43,520 Speaker 1: to get the permission of whatever entity holds the copyright 291 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:46,560 Speaker 1: for any specific intellectual property. In some cases it might 292 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:50,120 Speaker 1: be an individual creator, in other cases it might be 293 00:17:50,359 --> 00:17:54,720 Speaker 1: a big company. So let's say if you met an 294 00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:58,879 Speaker 1: artist for Disney in a cafe and this artist told you, oh, 295 00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:03,080 Speaker 1: it's totally cool if you use their drawing of a 296 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:07,240 Speaker 1: popular Disney character for something you're doing that's probably not 297 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:11,639 Speaker 1: good enough because that artist wouldn't even hold the copyright 298 00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:16,520 Speaker 1: for that work. Disney would, and copyright laws would evolve 299 00:18:16,680 --> 00:18:20,760 Speaker 1: quite a lot over the following centuries. They expanded to 300 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:24,200 Speaker 1: include more types of works, as well as to allow 301 00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:27,960 Speaker 1: for things like licenses, and without these considerations, it might 302 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:31,480 Speaker 1: be illegal to you know, play back an album without 303 00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:34,920 Speaker 1: first getting permission of the music label, which is clearly absurd. 304 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:37,760 Speaker 1: You wouldn't have it where you bought an album, you 305 00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:41,000 Speaker 1: went home, and every time you were to play the album, 306 00:18:41,080 --> 00:18:44,679 Speaker 1: you first had to get permission from the music label 307 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:47,560 Speaker 1: to do that. That just doesn't make sense. But that's 308 00:18:47,600 --> 00:18:50,120 Speaker 1: the sort of stuff that actually had to be codified 309 00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:54,000 Speaker 1: into law. It's you know, it's not enough to just 310 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:57,280 Speaker 1: everyone agree like, oh well, that's absurd. It actually had 311 00:18:57,280 --> 00:19:00,760 Speaker 1: to be written down somewhere and ratified. One of the 312 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:05,320 Speaker 1: biggest changes to copyright has been how long that copyright 313 00:19:05,359 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 1: protection lasts. This also ties into how many capitalist societies 314 00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:16,280 Speaker 1: treat corporations, which is ridiculously in my mind. So here 315 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:19,320 Speaker 1: in the United States, in particular, corporations are treated legally 316 00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:21,840 Speaker 1: like a person. But if you think about it, that's 317 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:25,120 Speaker 1: kind of bonkers. More than kind of bonkers. I should say, 318 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:30,000 Speaker 1: people get old. People pass away corporations. Assuming that they 319 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:32,720 Speaker 1: are run well and they provide some sort of goods 320 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:37,920 Speaker 1: or services that people want or need, they can exist indefinitely. 321 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:42,439 Speaker 1: And a corporation that relies heavily on intellectual property is 322 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:45,920 Speaker 1: quite loath to give up that meal ticket. And so 323 00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:51,040 Speaker 1: corporations over the years have lobbied hard to extend copyright 324 00:19:51,359 --> 00:19:53,840 Speaker 1: in order to prevent the IP that they own from 325 00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:56,159 Speaker 1: falling into the public domain. And then they can no 326 00:19:56,280 --> 00:20:02,360 Speaker 1: longer exclusively exploit that IP. They could still exploit it, 327 00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:05,920 Speaker 1: they could still sell stuff with it, just it doesn't 328 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:08,960 Speaker 1: stop anyone else from doing the same thing. Perhaps the 329 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:12,240 Speaker 1: most high profile of all these companies was one that 330 00:20:12,359 --> 00:20:16,160 Speaker 1: seemed fixated on a particular mouse that I've already mentioned. 331 00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:27,600 Speaker 1: I'll explain more after this quick break. Before the break, 332 00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:30,800 Speaker 1: I teased that corporations played a huge part in lobbying 333 00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:34,399 Speaker 1: Congress to extend the protections of copyright. And one of 334 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:38,360 Speaker 1: those corporations is the Walt Disney Company and the cultural 335 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:43,320 Speaker 1: phenomenon that is Mickey Mouse. The cartoon Steamboat Willie, which 336 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:47,120 Speaker 1: was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, was released in nineteen 337 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:51,600 Speaker 1: twenty eight. Now, at that time, US copyright law had 338 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:54,679 Speaker 1: a twenty eight year protection limit, which could then be 339 00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:58,359 Speaker 1: renewed for a second twenty eight year term, which would 340 00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:01,760 Speaker 1: provide a total of fis fifty six years of copyright 341 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:05,560 Speaker 1: exclusivity to the owner of an IP, But then the 342 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:09,120 Speaker 1: IP would enter the public domain. That means that if 343 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:14,640 Speaker 1: copyright law had remained unchanged since Steamboat Willie, Steamboat Willy 344 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:18,640 Speaker 1: would have entered the public domain back in nineteen eighty four. 345 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:23,240 Speaker 1: Spoiler alert, as of the recording of this podcast, Steamboat 346 00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:26,840 Speaker 1: Willie is not in the public domain yet, so things 347 00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:30,399 Speaker 1: did not remain the same. By the nineteen seventies, the 348 00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:34,119 Speaker 1: Disney Company was lobbying hard to change copyright laws, and 349 00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:36,639 Speaker 1: I want to be clear they weren't the only ones, 350 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:43,120 Speaker 1: but you frequently hear Disney specifically in regard to lobbying 351 00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:47,240 Speaker 1: for copyright law extensions, and it worked. Congress changed the 352 00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:51,119 Speaker 1: copyright protection so that copyrights that were held by individual 353 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:56,119 Speaker 1: authors protection would last the lifetime of that author plus 354 00:21:56,160 --> 00:22:00,639 Speaker 1: another fifty years. So now we're well beyond gearuaranteeing the 355 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:02,960 Speaker 1: right of a person to profit off of their work. 356 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:07,359 Speaker 1: Right now, you're saying you're guaranteeing that multiple generations of 357 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:10,840 Speaker 1: an author's family can continue to benefit from the work 358 00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:15,040 Speaker 1: of the author. The author will be dead and fifty 359 00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:17,880 Speaker 1: years will pass, and until those fifty years are up, 360 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:24,000 Speaker 1: the estate will continue to benefit monetarily from that author's work, 361 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:26,840 Speaker 1: assuming that you know, people are still buying it. Obviously, 362 00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:29,720 Speaker 1: if it falls out of favor and no one's purchasing anything, 363 00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:35,040 Speaker 1: then those rights, while they're important, don't actually leverage into 364 00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:38,520 Speaker 1: any kind of monetary gain. But this is where I 365 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:40,879 Speaker 1: start feeling a little weird about all this, because I 366 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:43,400 Speaker 1: think it's one thing to want to provide for your family, 367 00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:48,080 Speaker 1: right you want to earn money and help contribute to 368 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:53,080 Speaker 1: your family or household's well being. But it's another to 369 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:57,200 Speaker 1: create generational wealth that removes the need for future generations 370 00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:01,040 Speaker 1: to you know, make any sort of meaningful contribution themselves. 371 00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:05,359 Speaker 1: There are lots of cases where the children of authors 372 00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:10,320 Speaker 1: who were incredibly successful have themselves gone on to do 373 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:13,879 Speaker 1: amazing things, which is great, But there are also cases 374 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:17,600 Speaker 1: of people who just kind of, you know, never bothered 375 00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:21,119 Speaker 1: to do anything because they didn't really have a need to. 376 00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:24,240 Speaker 1: They were all of their needs were already met because 377 00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:29,320 Speaker 1: they were earning income on something that their parents or 378 00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:33,600 Speaker 1: grandparents or great grandparents had done, and there never was 379 00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:38,520 Speaker 1: any need for them to do anything. Not super helpful 380 00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:43,280 Speaker 1: for the general society. Not very healthy in my mind anyway. 381 00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:47,879 Speaker 1: For corporations that owned IP it was a different story, right, 382 00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:50,680 Speaker 1: because corporations don't die, so you can't say the life 383 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:54,359 Speaker 1: of a corporation plus fifty years. So in this case, 384 00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:58,280 Speaker 1: the Copyright Protection extended the term for works that had 385 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:01,560 Speaker 1: been published before nineteen seven seventy eight to a total 386 00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:05,879 Speaker 1: term of seventy five years of protection. The Copyright Extension 387 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:09,200 Speaker 1: pushed that protection of Steamboat Willy to two thousand and 388 00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:11,280 Speaker 1: three because of that, because it was published in nineteen 389 00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:13,840 Speaker 1: twenty eight, seventy five years later would be up to 390 00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:18,080 Speaker 1: two thousand and three. However, in nineteen ninety eight, Congress 391 00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:21,560 Speaker 1: passed the Copyright Term Extension Act, also known as the 392 00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:25,760 Speaker 1: Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, after the late congressman 393 00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:29,080 Speaker 1: and musician Sonny Bono Bono had passed away in an 394 00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:32,479 Speaker 1: accident while Congress was hashing out this extension bill, so 395 00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:36,560 Speaker 1: he was posthumously honored with the title of the act. 396 00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:40,920 Speaker 1: This Act extended the copyright protection for any work published 397 00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:44,560 Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty three or later, and the extension meant 398 00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:48,320 Speaker 1: that the copyright protection now went from the life of 399 00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:51,560 Speaker 1: the author plus fifty years to the life of the 400 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,840 Speaker 1: author plus seventy years for those works that were created 401 00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:58,399 Speaker 1: by an individual artist, and it meant for works of 402 00:24:58,520 --> 00:25:03,240 Speaker 1: corporate authorship, you know, works that like Steamboat Willy from Disney, 403 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:06,080 Speaker 1: they went from having seventy five years of protection to 404 00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:09,800 Speaker 1: either ninety five years after publication or one hundred and 405 00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:13,480 Speaker 1: twenty years from the date of creation, whichever ended earlier. 406 00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:18,280 Speaker 1: So you know, corporations might create something but not yet 407 00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:22,120 Speaker 1: publish it, so in some cases you would actually have 408 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:25,240 Speaker 1: a shorter period between time of creation and one hundred 409 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:28,200 Speaker 1: and twenty years than time of publication. In ninety five 410 00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:32,360 Speaker 1: years anyway, any published work before nineteen seventy eight would 411 00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:36,240 Speaker 1: get an additional twenty years of copyright protection, so it 412 00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:38,679 Speaker 1: went from seventy five years to ninety five years, And 413 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:41,720 Speaker 1: those extra twenty years meant that Steamboat Willy will now 414 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:45,080 Speaker 1: enter public domain essentially at the beginning of twenty twenty four, 415 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:48,359 Speaker 1: unless between now and then there's yet another change to 416 00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:53,879 Speaker 1: copyright law, which seems highly unlikely because there is a 417 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:57,919 Speaker 1: large opposition to that. Since the Copyright Act I've mentioned 418 00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:02,200 Speaker 1: so far retroactively protected any word published after nineteen twenty three, 419 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:05,159 Speaker 1: it meant that we finally saw some published works go 420 00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:09,159 Speaker 1: into the public domain beginning in twenty nineteen. So on 421 00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:13,400 Speaker 1: January first, twenty nineteen, any copyrighted works that were published 422 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:16,679 Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty three, with a few exceptions that have 423 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:20,119 Speaker 1: to do with music because music is complicated, otherwise, they 424 00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:22,639 Speaker 1: entered the public domain at that point. This was the 425 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:25,359 Speaker 1: first time in twenty one years that a large collection 426 00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:29,119 Speaker 1: of works fell out of copyright protection into the public domain, 427 00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:32,880 Speaker 1: only because of the timing of changes to copyright law 428 00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:36,360 Speaker 1: in the United States. So works from nineteen twenty two 429 00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:39,360 Speaker 1: had entered the public domain back in nineteen ninety eight, 430 00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:42,439 Speaker 1: but then you had the change to copyright law, and 431 00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:45,560 Speaker 1: so any works from nineteen twenty three enjoyed twenty more 432 00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:48,920 Speaker 1: years of protection because of that recent extension, and thus 433 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:51,520 Speaker 1: they only entered the public domain in twenty nineteen. That's 434 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:55,200 Speaker 1: the difference that a single year can make. This year, 435 00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:58,320 Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one, we saw works like F. Scott 436 00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:02,159 Speaker 1: Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby go into the public domain. You 437 00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:04,480 Speaker 1: can now make as many copies of The Great Gatsby 438 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:06,960 Speaker 1: as you like. You can hand them out for free. 439 00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:09,280 Speaker 1: You could charge for them if you want to. It's 440 00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:13,800 Speaker 1: public domain. Doctor Doolittle's Zoo also went into public domain 441 00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:17,199 Speaker 1: this year. Agatha Christie's The Secret of Chimney's made its 442 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:21,760 Speaker 1: exit from copyright protection. The nineteen twenty five silent film 443 00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:25,520 Speaker 1: version of Ben her not the Charlton Heston version, but 444 00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:28,320 Speaker 1: the nineteen twenty five silent film version is in public domain, 445 00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:32,280 Speaker 1: as is Lawn Cheney's The Phantom of the Opera. Also, 446 00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:35,080 Speaker 1: the silent film version of Wizard of Oz again not 447 00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:40,119 Speaker 1: the big musical version, you know, not the follow the 448 00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:42,879 Speaker 1: Yellow Brick Road version, but the silent film version of 449 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,400 Speaker 1: Wizard of Oz is also into public domain this year. 450 00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:48,040 Speaker 1: Now that means that if you want to make copies 451 00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:50,120 Speaker 1: of lawn Cheney's Fantom of the Opera and you want 452 00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,760 Speaker 1: to distribute those widely. If you want to post the 453 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,560 Speaker 1: entire movie on YouTube, you can. You can do it 454 00:27:56,760 --> 00:28:02,359 Speaker 1: for free. You could also, you know, sell DVDs of 455 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:05,760 Speaker 1: it if you wanted to. You could press DVDs with 456 00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:09,280 Speaker 1: Lawn Cheney's Venom of the Opera, and you could sell them. 457 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:11,560 Speaker 1: I don't know if anyone would buy them, but you 458 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:13,920 Speaker 1: could do it. You can do it here, you can 459 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:17,119 Speaker 1: do it there, You can do it everywhere in the US. Anyway, 460 00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:21,199 Speaker 1: it is no longer in copyright now, backtracking just a 461 00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:24,480 Speaker 1: little bit, the printing press had made copyright protection more 462 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:27,879 Speaker 1: or less a necessity to prevent publishers from pouncing on 463 00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:31,600 Speaker 1: each other and flooding the market with copies of various books. 464 00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:35,320 Speaker 1: But for a really long time, copyright was just something 465 00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:38,280 Speaker 1: that big companies were mostly concerned with. It was a 466 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:41,400 Speaker 1: non factor for the average person. I mean, it affected us, 467 00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:45,560 Speaker 1: but we didn't come into any sort of conflict with 468 00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:49,040 Speaker 1: copyright protection because most of us just didn't have access 469 00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:53,040 Speaker 1: to equipment that we would need to replicate an original work. 470 00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,240 Speaker 1: If back in the mid nineteen twenties you managed to 471 00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:59,240 Speaker 1: get your grubby hands on a copy of The Great Gatsby, 472 00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:02,520 Speaker 1: you probably didn't have the ability to copy that work 473 00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:05,080 Speaker 1: and then sell it to people yourself, you know, like 474 00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:11,200 Speaker 1: undercutting big bookstores or whatever. Publishing houses were protecting themselves, 475 00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:14,600 Speaker 1: but they were doing so mostly from other publishing houses. 476 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,720 Speaker 1: The average person was not a threat, So the nature 477 00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:22,360 Speaker 1: of copyright law was all about corporate entities protecting themselves 478 00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:26,400 Speaker 1: from each other. This, by the way, is what kind 479 00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:29,840 Speaker 1: of becomes an issue in the modern day, where you've 480 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,480 Speaker 1: got the effect of like a nuclear arsenal, you know, 481 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:36,880 Speaker 1: corporations against each other that could then be aimed against 482 00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:42,120 Speaker 1: the individual because the nature of copying has changed, so 483 00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:48,320 Speaker 1: there's a disproportionate hardship on the individual because of that. 484 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:52,560 Speaker 1: So over time, various inventions meant more people would have 485 00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:56,640 Speaker 1: the ability to create copies of stuff, and these technological 486 00:29:56,720 --> 00:30:01,160 Speaker 1: advancements always came hand in hand with media company freaking 487 00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:04,280 Speaker 1: the heck out about it, which is not an exaggeration. 488 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:09,200 Speaker 1: The invention of technologies like cassette tapes or VHS tapes, 489 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:14,480 Speaker 1: burnable compact discs, and of course digital media all sent 490 00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:19,360 Speaker 1: media companies into a tizzy. Each invention prompted the companies 491 00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:23,800 Speaker 1: to object strenuously and to proclaim that should these technologies 492 00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:29,240 Speaker 1: fall into the hands of the common, unwashed masses like myself, 493 00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:33,280 Speaker 1: that the era of stuff like film or television or 494 00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,080 Speaker 1: popular music would all come to an end and the 495 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:40,520 Speaker 1: entire industry would crash down on itself and we would 496 00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:44,959 Speaker 1: then be back to banging rocks together for entertainment. News Alert. 497 00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:48,160 Speaker 1: None of that happened, but in the process we saw 498 00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:52,920 Speaker 1: lots of other laws passed that expanded copyright protection by 499 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:56,880 Speaker 1: creating a pretty extensive framework for prosecution should an IP 500 00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:01,240 Speaker 1: holder discover that someone is copied or distributed stuff that 501 00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:05,560 Speaker 1: they hold the rights to without proper authorization. I will 502 00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:09,680 Speaker 1: cover more of those in the next episode. Now, one 503 00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:13,280 Speaker 1: of the reasons the public domain is important is that 504 00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:16,520 Speaker 1: works can have a great deal of relevance and usefulness 505 00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:20,760 Speaker 1: many years after they were published. Think of all the 506 00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:23,520 Speaker 1: classics that are out there that have stood the test 507 00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:28,040 Speaker 1: of time. But if copyright lasted forever, these works would 508 00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:32,080 Speaker 1: be under a tight restriction in perpetuity. Public domain means 509 00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:37,320 Speaker 1: that eventually these works will become widely accessible. It's balancing 510 00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:40,800 Speaker 1: out the benefits that go to the IP holder against 511 00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:44,320 Speaker 1: the benefits of society as a whole. All right, But 512 00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:48,959 Speaker 1: what about fair use? Okay? So, fair use is a 513 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:53,640 Speaker 1: concept that allows someone to use part of a copyrighted 514 00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:59,680 Speaker 1: work that without permission in one of several ways, and 515 00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:04,240 Speaker 1: it's fairly narrow in its scope. But also kind of 516 00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:07,080 Speaker 1: fuzzy at the edges, so it's narrow in scope, but 517 00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:10,480 Speaker 1: there are no hard yes or no answers to this stuff. 518 00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:13,800 Speaker 1: In general, fair use allows someone to make limited use 519 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:17,320 Speaker 1: of a portion of a copyrighted work for the purposes 520 00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:23,600 Speaker 1: of news reporting, research, teaching, or criticism and commentary. Parody 521 00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,600 Speaker 1: falls into that last category as well, but we're going 522 00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,240 Speaker 1: to come back to that. Because it's a more specific 523 00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:34,320 Speaker 1: approach than just adding funny words to existing music. Fair 524 00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:37,440 Speaker 1: use means that you don't have to secure permission from 525 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,800 Speaker 1: the copyright holder if you're using a small portion of 526 00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:44,320 Speaker 1: that original work in one of these ways. So, for example, 527 00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:47,960 Speaker 1: if I were criticizing a film, I could use small 528 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,200 Speaker 1: clips of that film during my critique. Let's say I'm 529 00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:54,400 Speaker 1: uploading a video to YouTube where I am critiquing a movie. 530 00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:57,560 Speaker 1: I can include tiny clips of that film in order 531 00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:01,520 Speaker 1: to illustrate specific points of my criticis, and I wouldn't 532 00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:05,440 Speaker 1: have to get permission first. The clips I used would 533 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:09,560 Speaker 1: need to relate directly to that criticism. However, I might 534 00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:13,000 Speaker 1: want to talk about lighting composition, and I'll use clips 535 00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:17,680 Speaker 1: from Robert Egger's film The Lighthouse, because that film had 536 00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:20,920 Speaker 1: phenomenal lighting in it. So I'd use those examples to 537 00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:24,840 Speaker 1: talk about specific lighting techniques and how they shape storytelling 538 00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:29,640 Speaker 1: and what significance they play in the unfolding of the 539 00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:32,080 Speaker 1: story of the lighthouse. But if I were to get 540 00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:35,280 Speaker 1: more lucy goosey, my protection of fair use would not 541 00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:39,600 Speaker 1: be as solid. Similarly, if I were to use very 542 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:43,120 Speaker 1: short clips of the film in my critique, my argument 543 00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:46,240 Speaker 1: of fair use is better supported than if I were to, say, 544 00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:50,320 Speaker 1: include thirty minutes of the movie surrounded by like five 545 00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,920 Speaker 1: minutes of criticism. Now, does that mean there's a specific 546 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,040 Speaker 1: safe amount of copyrighted material that you can use without 547 00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:02,200 Speaker 1: fear of retribution. No. There is a common misconception that 548 00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:05,840 Speaker 1: if you use less than say, fifteen seconds of audio 549 00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:10,279 Speaker 1: from a source or six seconds or whatever, that that's 550 00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:12,520 Speaker 1: small enough to be fair use and no one's gonna 551 00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:15,239 Speaker 1: come after you. That is just not true. Or rather, 552 00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:18,880 Speaker 1: it's not a guarantee. Specifically, it's not a guarantee if 553 00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:22,480 Speaker 1: you're not using that as some form of commentary or 554 00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:26,000 Speaker 1: criticism on the work itself, if you're using it as 555 00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:30,279 Speaker 1: like the button to a moment, you know, like a 556 00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:34,719 Speaker 1: SoundBite or whatever, there's very little support for a fair 557 00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:37,279 Speaker 1: use argument there. So if I just filled up this 558 00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:42,520 Speaker 1: podcast with soundbites from various films and music, TV shows 559 00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:45,920 Speaker 1: and radio spots and stuff like that, without paying a 560 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,360 Speaker 1: license for all of those things, I would be flying 561 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:53,399 Speaker 1: pretty darn close to the sun. Because unless I'm using 562 00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:57,839 Speaker 1: those snippets in very specific ways, such as to criticize 563 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:01,560 Speaker 1: those original works that the snippet it's belonged to, or 564 00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:05,120 Speaker 1: to report on the news of those snippets, well, I 565 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:09,440 Speaker 1: would be infringing on copyright. That doesn't necessarily mean anyone 566 00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:12,239 Speaker 1: is going to come after me. I mean chances are 567 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:16,120 Speaker 1: for really small stuff, I'd probably be okay unless my 568 00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:20,080 Speaker 1: podcast got wildly successful, in which case I could represent 569 00:35:20,120 --> 00:35:23,560 Speaker 1: a pretty lucrative target. If the copyright holders looked at 570 00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:26,960 Speaker 1: my podcast and said, well, that show is making x 571 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:30,920 Speaker 1: million dollars a year, and a lot of that popularity 572 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:34,840 Speaker 1: we could argue comes from its use of our intellectual property. 573 00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:38,000 Speaker 1: We can get a piece of that pie like that. 574 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:40,720 Speaker 1: That would be the thought process, and it could actually 575 00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:44,640 Speaker 1: work in court. So it doesn't mean I'm bulletproof if 576 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,320 Speaker 1: I'm just using tiny little clips. It's not until it 577 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:51,279 Speaker 1: goes to court that I really know if I'm going 578 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:54,200 Speaker 1: to have to pay or not. So fair use isn't 579 00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:57,440 Speaker 1: a concept that has hard borders to it. It's all 580 00:35:57,560 --> 00:36:00,719 Speaker 1: interpretive stuff. And here's the key to all of it. 581 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:04,560 Speaker 1: Fair use is something that gets determined in court. So, 582 00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:08,200 Speaker 1: in other words, you can't really use fair use proactively 583 00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:11,759 Speaker 1: as a defense. It's a defense that you make if 584 00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:15,799 Speaker 1: a copyright holder pursues a claim against you for copyright infringement. 585 00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:18,719 Speaker 1: So let's say that I did that critique of The 586 00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:23,200 Speaker 1: Lighthouse and the film company A twenty four, which released 587 00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:26,000 Speaker 1: and distributed the film here in the United States. Let's 588 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:30,480 Speaker 1: say that company came after me for copyright infringement, and 589 00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:34,040 Speaker 1: I would have to defend my use of those clips 590 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:36,600 Speaker 1: in court, and I would have to cite fair use 591 00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:40,479 Speaker 1: in that process. Throughout the court proceedings, I would likely 592 00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:43,160 Speaker 1: have to prove that the way I use those clips 593 00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:46,120 Speaker 1: was in fact to critique the film, and that the 594 00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:49,800 Speaker 1: excerpts I used were appropriate and constituted a relatively small 595 00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:54,360 Speaker 1: percentage of the overall critique and a very small percentage 596 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:58,160 Speaker 1: of the original film. Courts decide on a case by 597 00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:01,799 Speaker 1: case basis if a particular instance is fair use or not. 598 00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:06,360 Speaker 1: There isn't a blanket fair use defense. You gotta go 599 00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:07,840 Speaker 1: in front of the courts to do it. And this 600 00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,799 Speaker 1: is what I meant by that nuclear arsenal. When it 601 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:14,960 Speaker 1: comes to companies versus companies, typically you have lawyers on 602 00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:19,719 Speaker 1: both sides who are just perpetually employed by these companies 603 00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:22,439 Speaker 1: that call each other up and they work things out 604 00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:25,120 Speaker 1: and you might have a licensing agreement or you might 605 00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:28,640 Speaker 1: agree to a settlement, but it rarely goes to court. 606 00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:32,759 Speaker 1: When it comes to individuals, most of us don't have 607 00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:37,280 Speaker 1: access to that kind of legal defense. So for us, 608 00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:42,120 Speaker 1: it's like a massive, well funded company with high paid 609 00:37:42,239 --> 00:37:46,080 Speaker 1: lawyers versus the little guy, and it means that the 610 00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:48,840 Speaker 1: little guy has to shell out the big bucks in 611 00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:52,880 Speaker 1: order to defend themselves against the corporations. Even if the 612 00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:57,600 Speaker 1: little guy is totally in the right. If the use 613 00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:02,560 Speaker 1: is inarguably fair use, you don't get to that decision magically. 614 00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:04,680 Speaker 1: You have to go to court for it, and court 615 00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:09,000 Speaker 1: is expensive. We're going to pause the conversation right here, 616 00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:19,520 Speaker 1: take a quick break, and we'll be right back now. 617 00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:23,040 Speaker 1: The courts tend to look at four factors when deciding 618 00:38:23,160 --> 00:38:27,440 Speaker 1: if any given instance constitutes fair use one is the 619 00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:30,920 Speaker 1: purpose and character of the use of the original material, 620 00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:35,360 Speaker 1: including whether the use is for a commercial nature or 621 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:39,200 Speaker 1: is nonprofit and educational. So, in other words, if I'm 622 00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:42,560 Speaker 1: making videos where I critique films and I include clips 623 00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:46,560 Speaker 1: of those films in the videos, and I'm monetizing those 624 00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:49,680 Speaker 1: critique videos, that can be a little bit of a 625 00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:53,880 Speaker 1: strike against me because I'm using someone else's work in 626 00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:56,959 Speaker 1: something on my own in order to make money. That's 627 00:38:57,000 --> 00:38:59,719 Speaker 1: not a failure rail of the gate, but it does 628 00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:02,840 Speaker 1: make my argument harder. So it doesn't mean that a 629 00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:07,120 Speaker 1: court is going to decide I'm not engaging in fair use. 630 00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:11,520 Speaker 1: But in general, if the use is nonprofit and it's educational, 631 00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:14,359 Speaker 1: it fits more easily into the fair use category, and 632 00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:17,560 Speaker 1: courts tend to be a bit more forgiving. Then there's 633 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:21,319 Speaker 1: the nature of the copyrighted work itself. In general, it 634 00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:23,880 Speaker 1: is easier to make a fair use argument if the 635 00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:27,960 Speaker 1: thing you're sampling from is a non fictional work. Works 636 00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:31,920 Speaker 1: that are about creative expression, like novels or movies, have 637 00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:36,360 Speaker 1: a higher burden of proof than works that are nonfiction. So, 638 00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:40,120 Speaker 1: for example, in this podcast, I will sometimes quote specific 639 00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:44,480 Speaker 1: sources those are nonfiction sources and I quote from them 640 00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:48,920 Speaker 1: to establish facts. That's easier to defend as fair use 641 00:39:49,560 --> 00:39:52,719 Speaker 1: than if I were to include, say a minute long 642 00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:55,799 Speaker 1: audio clip from a science fiction television show that's a 643 00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:59,279 Speaker 1: work of fiction. It's a work of creative endeavors. That 644 00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:01,799 Speaker 1: is harder to to justify as fair use unless I'm 645 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:07,319 Speaker 1: specifically critiquing the show itself. Then comes the amount and 646 00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:11,000 Speaker 1: substantiality of the portion of the copyrighted work that I 647 00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:14,080 Speaker 1: used in my critique of The Lighthouse. If I'm using 648 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:17,719 Speaker 1: very short clips that just show up in my video 649 00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:20,000 Speaker 1: for like five or ten seconds each as I talk 650 00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:23,560 Speaker 1: about lighting techniques, that's easier to defend as fair use. 651 00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:26,359 Speaker 1: I'm not showing a significant part of the movie. People 652 00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:28,760 Speaker 1: aren't going to feel like they saw the entire film 653 00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:32,480 Speaker 1: by watching my critique. They're just getting a flavor of 654 00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:35,279 Speaker 1: what I'm talking about and getting an understanding of what 655 00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:39,160 Speaker 1: I mean when I'm critiquing the use of lighting. If I'm, however, 656 00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:43,880 Speaker 1: using very long stretches of the original film, particularly stretches 657 00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:47,080 Speaker 1: that don't include changes in lighting, well that's going to 658 00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:51,160 Speaker 1: be a lot harder to defend in court. And then 659 00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:55,120 Speaker 1: there's the effect of the use upon the potential market 660 00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:59,360 Speaker 1: for the copyrighted work. If my derivative work could possibly 661 00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:03,400 Speaker 1: hurt the same of the original by displacing the sales 662 00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:07,400 Speaker 1: of that original, that's a problem. And this one is 663 00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:10,560 Speaker 1: a tricky one, right because what if I'm not critiquing 664 00:41:10,760 --> 00:41:14,320 Speaker 1: the technique of a film, but the quality of a film. 665 00:41:14,800 --> 00:41:17,080 Speaker 1: And what if I present a video where I do 666 00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:21,080 Speaker 1: an extensive tear down of a movie and I explain 667 00:41:21,239 --> 00:41:23,920 Speaker 1: how I think it is not a good film, or 668 00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:26,960 Speaker 1: I'm arguing that people shouldn't go see that movie, that 669 00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:29,680 Speaker 1: it would be a waste of their time and money. Well, 670 00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:33,080 Speaker 1: if folks value my judgment, I could well be said 671 00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:35,600 Speaker 1: to have a negative impact on the sales of the 672 00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:40,400 Speaker 1: original work. However, generally that would still be protected. However, 673 00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:42,800 Speaker 1: if I were to use the original in some way 674 00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:45,600 Speaker 1: that would make people want to buy my derivative work 675 00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:50,400 Speaker 1: or consume it for free or whatever instead of the original, 676 00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:53,319 Speaker 1: well that's harder to defend. So let's say, like in 677 00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:56,080 Speaker 1: my critique of The Lighthouse, I included the entire film 678 00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:59,680 Speaker 1: of the Lighthouse in my critique. That would be very 679 00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:02,520 Speaker 1: hard to defend, not just because I'm using a substantial 680 00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:06,600 Speaker 1: amount of the original work. But also the company could argue, hey, 681 00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:10,600 Speaker 1: why would people pay to see our movie if they 682 00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:13,520 Speaker 1: can see it for free. Just wrapped up in the 683 00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:17,759 Speaker 1: context of this supposed criticism video, the copyright holder it 684 00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:21,040 Speaker 1: can make a valid claim that my derivative work would 685 00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:24,680 Speaker 1: not exist without the copyright original piece, and yet it 686 00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:28,839 Speaker 1: was essentially siphoning sales away from that original piece that 687 00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:34,400 Speaker 1: is not protected under fair use. Okay, we've got that 688 00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:36,480 Speaker 1: all established. We're going to make a couple more points 689 00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:40,960 Speaker 1: before we wrap this up. So when it comes to 690 00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:44,000 Speaker 1: stuff like music, I mentioned that you can copyright the 691 00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:48,480 Speaker 1: musical composition, and you can copyright the lyrics separately. One 692 00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:52,640 Speaker 1: other thing you can do, however, is copyright individual performances 693 00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:56,160 Speaker 1: of a piece of music. So, for example, let's say 694 00:42:56,560 --> 00:42:58,600 Speaker 1: that you're making a video and you want to make 695 00:42:58,760 --> 00:43:02,359 Speaker 1: use of a recording of Beethoven's Ode to Joy. Now, 696 00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:05,239 Speaker 1: Ode to Joy is part of Beethoven's Symphony number nine. 697 00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:08,680 Speaker 1: Beethoven composed that in the eighteen twenties, and it has 698 00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:12,759 Speaker 1: long since passed into the public domain. You can use 699 00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:17,000 Speaker 1: Ode to Joy in anything you like for free. There's 700 00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:20,080 Speaker 1: no one to pay royalties to as far as that's 701 00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:25,120 Speaker 1: concerned or licensing fees to However, that just covers the 702 00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:29,239 Speaker 1: music itself. A performance of ode to Joy will have 703 00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:33,560 Speaker 1: its own copyright which dates to the recording of that piece. 704 00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:37,799 Speaker 1: So even though the music is in public domain, a 705 00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:41,840 Speaker 1: performance likely is not unless you're using a performance of 706 00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:44,960 Speaker 1: ode to Joy that dates from before the nineteen twenties. 707 00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:49,719 Speaker 1: So you could perform ode to Joy yourself in your project, 708 00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:52,120 Speaker 1: you'd be good to go. The music is in the 709 00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:56,400 Speaker 1: public domain, the performance is yours, You're fine. But if 710 00:43:56,440 --> 00:43:59,920 Speaker 1: you wanted to, say, use a recording of the London 711 00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:04,400 Speaker 1: Philharmonic's performance that they did sometime in the nineteen nineties 712 00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:06,719 Speaker 1: of ode Joy, well then you would have to deal 713 00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:09,520 Speaker 1: with some licensing arrangements to get the proper permissions to 714 00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:12,920 Speaker 1: make use of that music. Because while the music's in 715 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,719 Speaker 1: the public domain, the performance is not. Then there are 716 00:44:16,719 --> 00:44:19,160 Speaker 1: other things to consider as well. So remember when I 717 00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:22,480 Speaker 1: said parody is kind of a special case with fair use, 718 00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:27,040 Speaker 1: This one gets even more complicated than other forms. So 719 00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:31,680 Speaker 1: technically parody falls under fair use if it falls under 720 00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:36,320 Speaker 1: the criticism and comment consideration for fair use. A typical 721 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:40,120 Speaker 1: definition of parody is quote and imitation of the style 722 00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:44,960 Speaker 1: of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration 723 00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:49,560 Speaker 1: for comic effect. End quote. But that doesn't automatically mean 724 00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:51,640 Speaker 1: that it's fair use. For it to be fair use, 725 00:44:52,280 --> 00:44:56,800 Speaker 1: that specific parody really needs to comment upon or criticize 726 00:44:57,239 --> 00:45:01,240 Speaker 1: the original work that it is parody. For that reason, 727 00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:05,520 Speaker 1: some but not all, of weird Al Yankovic's parody songs 728 00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:10,319 Speaker 1: would easily fall under fair use, and others would be questionable. Now. 729 00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:13,200 Speaker 1: I mentioned weird Al because he's the most famous parody 730 00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:15,560 Speaker 1: artist I can think of, that probably the one that 731 00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:18,440 Speaker 1: most people have heard of, and some of his parodies 732 00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:22,560 Speaker 1: do tend to target the original work. So Smells Like 733 00:45:22,680 --> 00:45:25,920 Speaker 1: Nirvana is a parody of the Nirvana song Smells Like 734 00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:29,479 Speaker 1: Teen Spirit, and it's all about critiquing the original song. 735 00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:33,160 Speaker 1: There are lyrics of what is this song all about? 736 00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:36,800 Speaker 1: Can't figure any lyrics out that comments on the lyrics 737 00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:39,759 Speaker 1: of the original work. Other verses pop fon at Kurt 738 00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:43,520 Speaker 1: Cobain's slurring and mumbling of words, making it hard to 739 00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:46,680 Speaker 1: understand what is actually being sung. So that song parody 740 00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:50,879 Speaker 1: would probably hold up under fair use. But then take 741 00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:55,440 Speaker 1: a song like Foil. Foil is a parody of Lord's 742 00:45:55,560 --> 00:45:59,920 Speaker 1: song Royals, So it's using the music and lyrical structure 743 00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:03,080 Speaker 1: of Royals. You know, they change the actual lyrics, but 744 00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:06,520 Speaker 1: it's the same rhyme, scheme and scan shin of Royals. 745 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:11,560 Speaker 1: But the song Foil isn't a commentary on Royals. Instead, 746 00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:14,919 Speaker 1: it's a comedic song about aluminum foil. And I'm pretty 747 00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:18,040 Speaker 1: sure you couldn't make an argument that it's somehow commenting 748 00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:21,560 Speaker 1: on the original work, which means that would be harder 749 00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:24,040 Speaker 1: to defend as fair use. It's not a bad song, 750 00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:26,799 Speaker 1: by the way. This isn't a commentary on the quality 751 00:46:27,239 --> 00:46:30,439 Speaker 1: of the parody, but rather whether it would fall under 752 00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:33,640 Speaker 1: the consideration of fair use or not. Now, to be clear, 753 00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:36,400 Speaker 1: weird Al makes it a practice to get permission to 754 00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:40,880 Speaker 1: do his parodies before he does them. He licenses the songs. 755 00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:44,880 Speaker 1: In cases like smells like Nirvana, he might have been 756 00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:48,960 Speaker 1: able to skip that step, or more likely his music 757 00:46:49,040 --> 00:46:52,879 Speaker 1: label would have if they were willing to defend any 758 00:46:52,960 --> 00:46:56,200 Speaker 1: lawsuits that came their way as a result, but as 759 00:46:56,239 --> 00:46:59,600 Speaker 1: both a courtesy and kind of the necessity, he reaches 760 00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:04,720 Speaker 1: out before recording parodies. Usually there's at least one version 761 00:47:04,760 --> 00:47:06,960 Speaker 1: of this where things didn't work out though. Actually there's 762 00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:08,839 Speaker 1: a couple I can think of, but I'm gonna mention 763 00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:11,520 Speaker 1: one in particular. So, back in two thousand and six, 764 00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:14,120 Speaker 1: We're All. Yankovic was working on an album and he 765 00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:17,120 Speaker 1: wanted to include a parody of the James Blunt song 766 00:47:17,360 --> 00:47:22,320 Speaker 1: You're Beautiful. Yankovic's version was a parody called Your Pitiful, 767 00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:25,839 Speaker 1: about a middle aged dude who's seriously down on his luck. 768 00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:30,080 Speaker 1: Blunt was receptive and he gave the go ahead to Yankovic, 769 00:47:30,239 --> 00:47:36,560 Speaker 1: But as Yankovic's album neared publication, Blunt's record label, Atlantic Records, 770 00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:39,800 Speaker 1: reached out to Yankovic's label and demanded that the song 771 00:47:39,920 --> 00:47:43,800 Speaker 1: not appear on the album. And you know, music labels 772 00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:49,080 Speaker 1: typically hold the IP for the actual songs of an artist. 773 00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:51,560 Speaker 1: In this case is a little more complicated than that, 774 00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:56,160 Speaker 1: So getting permission from Blunt, while a good thing, wasn't 775 00:47:56,400 --> 00:48:00,520 Speaker 1: totally legally binding. Blunt probably could have pushed back on 776 00:48:00,600 --> 00:48:04,680 Speaker 1: Atlantic Records about this, but that's not exactly an easy 777 00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:06,279 Speaker 1: thing to do when you're an artist. I mean, you 778 00:48:06,600 --> 00:48:08,480 Speaker 1: want to work with your label. You don't want that 779 00:48:08,560 --> 00:48:13,480 Speaker 1: to be a confrontational relationship. And as I mentioned, earlier. 780 00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:18,120 Speaker 1: Defending fair use is expensive because it all goes to 781 00:48:18,200 --> 00:48:21,000 Speaker 1: that consideration of a court, and that means lawyers and 782 00:48:21,080 --> 00:48:24,719 Speaker 1: lawyers have fees, and so defending an instance as fair 783 00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:28,560 Speaker 1: use in court can mean that you're paying thousands or 784 00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:33,719 Speaker 1: tens of thousands of dollars in fees just to defend yourself. 785 00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:38,520 Speaker 1: There's a financial disincentive to the average person because again, 786 00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:43,680 Speaker 1: these laws were made with corporations in mind, big entities 787 00:48:43,719 --> 00:48:46,760 Speaker 1: that can afford these kind of things. The average person can't. 788 00:48:47,239 --> 00:48:52,080 Speaker 1: So corporations like music labels or publishers have entire teams 789 00:48:52,080 --> 00:48:54,560 Speaker 1: of lawyers who do this stuff all the time. They 790 00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:57,680 Speaker 1: can put pressure on folks with threats of lawsuits, and 791 00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:00,319 Speaker 1: even if those folks are in the right now, even 792 00:49:00,320 --> 00:49:04,319 Speaker 1: if their works clearly would fall under fair use, to 793 00:49:04,400 --> 00:49:08,120 Speaker 1: defend it in court could be way too expensive for 794 00:49:08,239 --> 00:49:11,120 Speaker 1: these individuals to afford it. There have been cases in 795 00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:15,000 Speaker 1: which people have settled out of court for thousands of dollars, 796 00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:17,720 Speaker 1: not because they felt they were legit and the wrong, 797 00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:20,480 Speaker 1: but because trying to prove that they were innocent of 798 00:49:20,520 --> 00:49:25,200 Speaker 1: infringement was more expensive than settling. It's pretty darn brutal. Now, 799 00:49:25,239 --> 00:49:28,439 Speaker 1: what about all those posts and YouTube videos that say 800 00:49:28,440 --> 00:49:32,520 Speaker 1: no copyright infringement intended, those are pretty much worthless. It's 801 00:49:32,520 --> 00:49:35,000 Speaker 1: a kin to posting on Facebook that you aren't giving 802 00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:38,280 Speaker 1: Facebook the rights to your data. That's also useless because 803 00:49:38,480 --> 00:49:41,000 Speaker 1: just by signing on to Facebook and making an account, 804 00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:44,000 Speaker 1: you have to agree to Facebook's terms of service. That 805 00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:46,719 Speaker 1: kind of supersedes your little post that says you're not 806 00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:50,919 Speaker 1: in favor of Facebook using your data. Facebook's responses too bad, 807 00:49:51,120 --> 00:49:53,640 Speaker 1: because you agreed to it by being on the platform. 808 00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:56,160 Speaker 1: Now that's part of our terms of service. If you 809 00:49:56,200 --> 00:49:59,880 Speaker 1: don't want us to take your data, don't be on Facebook. 810 00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:02,080 Speaker 1: That's kind of the way that works. So if you 811 00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:05,160 Speaker 1: come across a video that says no copyright infringement intended, 812 00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:09,000 Speaker 1: or a picture on Instagram that clearly doesn't belong to 813 00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:12,080 Speaker 1: the account that posted it, just note that that phrase 814 00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:16,520 Speaker 1: means nothing. Intent is not part of determining whether someone 815 00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:19,880 Speaker 1: is infringing copyright in the first place. It doesn't matter 816 00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:23,680 Speaker 1: what you intend. There's definitely a gradient when it comes 817 00:50:23,680 --> 00:50:26,560 Speaker 1: to copyright infringement. Like if I include half of a 818 00:50:26,640 --> 00:50:30,400 Speaker 1: music video online, that's copyright infringement, But if I include 819 00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:34,120 Speaker 1: the whole thing that is worse. And if I monetize 820 00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:37,319 Speaker 1: the video where I do it, that's even worse. But 821 00:50:37,560 --> 00:50:40,920 Speaker 1: even that smallest first example I gave is still infringing. 822 00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:44,279 Speaker 1: Doesn't matter whether I think it is or not. You know, 823 00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:47,399 Speaker 1: if I can think something's not a crime, but if 824 00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:50,040 Speaker 1: legally it's a crime, doesn't really matter what I think. 825 00:50:50,760 --> 00:50:52,360 Speaker 1: There are a lot of other things I need to 826 00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:54,000 Speaker 1: say about this, but one thing I want to sum 827 00:50:54,080 --> 00:50:56,880 Speaker 1: up with right here before I close out, and we 828 00:50:56,920 --> 00:50:59,520 Speaker 1: will pick back up in the next episode, is that 829 00:50:59,560 --> 00:51:02,840 Speaker 1: Tom's Scott did a great job exploring the issues of 830 00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:05,799 Speaker 1: copyright and YouTube in particular, and I'll look more at 831 00:51:05,840 --> 00:51:08,120 Speaker 1: YouTube in the next episode. He did it in a 832 00:51:08,239 --> 00:51:13,080 Speaker 1: video titled YouTube's copyright system Isn't broken? The World's is, 833 00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:15,880 Speaker 1: And shout out to listener Kat, who first turned me 834 00:51:15,920 --> 00:51:18,520 Speaker 1: on to Tom Scott's videos. Scott does what I do, 835 00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:21,799 Speaker 1: only he does it with a British accent, so he's 836 00:51:21,840 --> 00:51:24,160 Speaker 1: better at it than I am by default. Also, he's 837 00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:27,440 Speaker 1: genuinely good at explaining stuff like this, so make sure 838 00:51:27,480 --> 00:51:29,879 Speaker 1: you check that out and we'll come back to talk 839 00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:33,839 Speaker 1: more about YouTube and copyright infringement and content ID and 840 00:51:33,880 --> 00:51:37,280 Speaker 1: some of the laws that have been passed after big 841 00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:40,480 Speaker 1: media companies have lobbied Congress in the United States that 842 00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:44,120 Speaker 1: have changed the way information gets shared on the Internet. 843 00:51:44,520 --> 00:51:48,200 Speaker 1: We'll also talk about some of the crazy movements that 844 00:51:48,239 --> 00:51:51,080 Speaker 1: companies have made against individuals and an effort to crack 845 00:51:51,120 --> 00:51:54,560 Speaker 1: down on things like piracy. Because all this is tied 846 00:51:54,680 --> 00:51:57,560 Speaker 1: up together and it's all a mess. And really what 847 00:51:57,600 --> 00:52:00,279 Speaker 1: it boils down to is that copyright law itself is 848 00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:06,880 Speaker 1: in dire need of a full rewrite. But that's dangerous 849 00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:10,440 Speaker 1: because the parties that are particularly interested in a rewrite 850 00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:13,400 Speaker 1: of copyright law are not looking to make it better, 851 00:52:13,680 --> 00:52:18,400 Speaker 1: They're looking to make it last longer. Hope you enjoyed 852 00:52:18,400 --> 00:52:22,760 Speaker 1: that episode from twenty twenty one, Copyright and fair use. Yeah, 853 00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:25,440 Speaker 1: fair use is one of those things that we can't 854 00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:30,560 Speaker 1: easily leverage ourselves, even in a podcast in a big 855 00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:34,719 Speaker 1: company like you might wonder why don't I do an 856 00:52:34,760 --> 00:52:38,959 Speaker 1: episode about a certain musical instrument like the Mogue synthesizer 857 00:52:39,440 --> 00:52:42,359 Speaker 1: and then include a whole bunch of Mogue music. Well, 858 00:52:42,360 --> 00:52:45,839 Speaker 1: it's because even though you could argue, yeah, it's fair use, 859 00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:48,920 Speaker 1: you're commenting on something and you're using it as an 860 00:52:48,920 --> 00:52:53,400 Speaker 1: example and it's the vast majority of the material is original, 861 00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:57,160 Speaker 1: it's not taken from a copyrighted work. That's still something 862 00:52:57,200 --> 00:53:00,360 Speaker 1: that comes up in court cases, right, Like, that's you 863 00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:03,560 Speaker 1: argue once you've already been sued, and ain't. Nobody wants 864 00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:07,600 Speaker 1: to get sued. So yeah, it is a complex thing, 865 00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:11,640 Speaker 1: and it's one that unless you're paying licenses to use 866 00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:15,279 Speaker 1: material for so that you can make absolutely certain that 867 00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:19,360 Speaker 1: you're not treading on any toes, you got to be 868 00:53:19,400 --> 00:53:22,239 Speaker 1: super careful. So I hope you enjoyed that episode about 869 00:53:22,280 --> 00:53:25,239 Speaker 1: copyright and fair use. I hope that was interesting and 870 00:53:25,320 --> 00:53:28,919 Speaker 1: informative to you. I'll talk to you again really soon. 871 00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:39,640 Speaker 1: Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 872 00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:43,680 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 873 00:53:43,719 --> 00:53:48,280 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.