…Of Real Protection for Artists, Musicians and Writers
Don’t get me wrong in my personal hue and cry over SOPA, the pending act of the US Congress that threatens to lock up electronic free speech and throw away the key. I don’t condone plagiarism and yes, I do believe that plagiarism and piracy for profit are criminal acts that should be punished accordingly.
I also happen to believe that despite all the blogging and reposting and sharing across the wild west of cyberspace, the free and open Internet we know and love today has done more to protect original artists from theft of their work than any lawyer or agent or media conglomerate could ever do.
Why? Because at some point along the great graffiti-ed sidewalk called the Internet superhighway, the name of an original writer or artist who created any original work that went viral is electronically tied to that work, and, if not obviously credited, will most likely resurface in tandem now and again.
Back in the days before computers and the Internet, any unknown and unrepresented writer or artist who got ripped off had little beyond an original manuscript, painting or film negative of proving the case without risking great personal effort, expense, general ridicule, permanent blacklisting and possibly even a counter-suit.
I know this because I was plagiarized myself a couple of times, and know how rotten it feels to see somebody famous saying lines I wrote on TV, knowing that because I trusted the wrong person and failed to establish a legal paper trail, I would never get credit, payment or future work for my original efforts. My story is as old as the Hollywood Hills, ‘nuff said on that point.
My own entry into the blogosphere is fairly recent. I welcome the idea of being able to freely publish, as well as permanently tag, my own stuff. Like many artists, I love sharing ideas more than I love money. I learned the importance of having a day job a long time ago, and that suits me fine, for now. I’ve discovered happily that I personally do not need to repost the work of others to fill up my tiny smidgeon of cyberspace. I’ve got enough junk floating around in my own head at all times to take care of that problem.
However, I also love the idea of helping others be seen. My convictions about according credit where credit is due are quite strong for reasons already expressed. I believe that reposts of anyone else’s work should not only display a published provenance when possible, but that the original creator should be credited, and that the work should be directly linked back to the artist. With that said, I also do not fault anyone who neglects to do the above, especially teenagers, as long as the repeater is not overtly plagiarizing for personal credit or profit.
To be sure, bonafide plagiarism occurs plenty via the Internet and TV media today, but the difference is that electronic link I mentioned. Copyright law should suffice for anyone who wants to make an issue of some vulture claiming credit for an original creator’s line or work of art.
My trouble with the idea of SOPA, beyond the obvious damage it will do to media commerce and its threat to criminalize almost everybody in the world who has internet access and whoever shared anything, is that the bill may actually do more harm than good to original artists, and as a result, severely impede free speech and the free sharing of ideas and knowledge.
SOPA appears to be geared towards punishing the mechanisms of new media, working as a kind of massive electronic book burning, so to speak, tipping the balance in favor of content that has been filtered and processed by the arrogant self-chosen few, tossing the rest of us back into the the lurch to be freely ripped off, and worse: brainwashed, that wicked mechanism of communism so deplored back in the day.
In my world, the name of the bill, “Stop Online Piracy Act,” is a flagrant misnomer. I personally suggest that a law be passed to require that SOPA change it’s name to APTSQ - “Always Protect the Status Quo.” The acronym is as hard to say as the real purpose of SOPA is easy to fathom.
With all this said, I guess one upside to SOPA is that media companies will now be forced to buy advertising to promote their own products; and that may help put some people back to work in the advertising world. In other words, there will be no more free lunch in the free-advertising, word-of-mouth department, either! Ha!
This piece was 100% originally written and copyrighted by Laura M. Mauney :). Thanks for reading. I love the attention.
