Feel The Berne (Convention): History of Fanfiction Part 2
Added 2016-11-01 15:26:10 +0000 UTChttps://www.maven.video/c/jillbearup/BJTsgEIle
Hooray! Mickey Mouse, Queen Anne, Sherlock Holmes, and A Brief History of Copyright!
Comments
That's an interesting take. These days most people's main issue with copyright law is the ever expanding length far beyond the original artists lifespan so that corporations(let's be honest here. Disney) wouldn't see their oldest characters enter the public domain. I don't think copyrights were ever intended to last over a century and unless we enter a time where we start celebrating an artists bi-centennial birthday(while they're still living) they shouldn't be allowed to.
Todd “Canuck” Schmuck
2016-11-13 08:21:59 +0000 UTCI kind of have a beef with the popular notion that copyright is all about protecting corporations from fans; I see copyright as protecting artists from corporations, case in point, Bill Waterson the creator of Calvin and Hobbes and his battle against comic syndicates. Back in the days of newspapers and comic strips, comics were created by individuals but owned by the publishing syndicates that owned the papers rather than by the artists. This meant that if an artist left, or the paper wanted to make more products than the artist could physically produce, or if the artist had the gall to ask to be paid a livable wage, the syndicate could get rid of them and replace them with any number of lowly rookie scribblers and continue to make strips and merchandise and whatnot under the name of the original artist. Waterson was able to use the extreme popularity of his strip to negotiate a contract that allowed him final say over licensing and merchandise but it took a huge fight, during which his original syndicate threatened to get rid of him and replace him without anyone knowing. He had real difficulty finding papers who were willing to publish him because of these demands. Given the choice between the brilliant ten year run of Calvin and Hobbes, versus the decades long decline of comics like Garfield, I'm really glad Waterson was able to retain ownership of his own work. If we didn't have stringent copyright laws, corporations would totally take any promising work they found and use their own platforms to promote their versions while going out of their way to strangle uncooperative creators. If an author wanted to take a book series in a new direction while the publishers wanted them to stick to the safe tried and true (and you know they would), the author would be booted out and replaced without so much as a second thought. The media would become even more dedicated to churning out basically the same book and the same movie over and over again because actual, volatile, dangerous artists would no longer be necessary.
De
2016-11-07 00:07:41 +0000 UTC
