In Copyright, The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend

Photographer John Harrington, of Black Star Rising, has a very interesting take on how photographers — and by implication, visual artists — will team up with large corporations to protect their copyrights.

The large corporations, with their deep pockets and strong desire to control intellectual property rights, will be the defenders of IP for all creators of original work in the legal battles ahead. And that means they’re on the same side as us — the independent photographers.

Harrington comes to this conclusion by taking-on the “free-culture” messiah, Lawrence Lessig.

Fortunately, Disney, Sony Music, the news wire services and others aren’t buying Lessig’s argument — and as photographers, we’re lucky to have these corporate behemoths on our side.

He concludes,

Lessig would have you believe that enforcing copyright law has become like the War on Drugs — unwinnable, and overshadowed by the collateral damage it has caused. In this case, the collateral damage is in the form of underground DJs and other criminalized remixers. I have little pity for these mashup artists, at a time when the artists of original work have such a difficult time protecting it, receiving fair compensation and feeding their families. And so I will gladly stand alongside the wire services, music and movie industries as they leverage their might to defeat those who would steal our work.

Harrington’s full entry is available here.

Tags: appropriation, art, derivative, fair use, intellectual property, mash ups, transformative