Media is a Public Practice

Unlike the essay on ‘Tagged’, Anne Lennox spoke not on how ethical decisions impact the creative work, but on specific aspects of copyright and copyright infringement. In reflection, due to the fact I am constantly making new pieces of Media for various assignments to know the very basics of copyright will no doubt help.

Something that stood out to me was to do with infringement and how it relates to the substance of the work not necessarily how much it is used (quality rather than quantity).I thought of the of ‘Men At Work’ song ‘land down under’. Though ‘Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree’ was only a small riff at the start and end of the song, Men at work so blatantly copied the melody that is became an infringement, with Larrikin Music receiving 5% of Royalties from 2002.

Annotated Copyright Notes taken from Anne Lennox’s Presentation

– Is automatic in Australia, you don’t need the little c, its commonwealth law.

– Ideas and facts are not protected by copyright, what is, is the form, what is actually created, not the concept. So it is easier and cheaper for people looking to adapt to draw thematically and conceptually from other pieces of art rather than borrowing actual dialogue or images. If elements of a story is deemed substantially similar to another work copyright infringement can still kick in.

– Whoever has created the work owns the work, unless you are doing it for a company, they may own it depending on the contract. They will talk about ownership in the contract, be aware of this, so you know what you own. You are bound by the terms you signed off to.

– Duration of copyright, life of author+70 years, Public Domain refers to when copyright has expired. For example Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is a copyright free novel and available to access in the public domain.

– Creative commons has a public domain license, which means creative commons licensing allows other creators to adapt their works. For example if I gave a song I wrote a creative commons license, I would allow others to use my song for free, as long as I got credit for it.

– Moral rights: If you use someone’s work you owe them credit, think of academic essays. The right thing to do is give the person credit.

For sampling, things get messy. If works are in the public domain, moral rights still apply. Integrity, honour and reputation, someone is not allowed to ‘mutilate’ in their adaption someone’s work. There are little cases of these in Australia. An example of this would be someone sampling, a Glenn Miller song that is in the public domain and not giving him credit, this would be illegal due to the fact moral rights still apply.

Interesting Quote

• It is your relationship with the person that makes things interesting, not the technology itself. It’s the connection that is interesting, not the ‘media’. I found this quote cool because I can relate to it. I guess with the most meaningful and significant music, movies, radio excerpts…… are meaningful and significant due to connection; people feel as though they can relate to and understand the people or characters that the media are presenting and representing.