Here at the ZRC, we take intellectual property seriously. Note that I don’t say ‘copyright’, I say intellectual property, and there’s a good reason for that distinction. Intellectual property is the precious commodity of creative thought and copyright is an antiquated and abusive system to try and guarantee payment for the use of said commodity. The two things are not synonymous.

We respect the work of creative individuals, and the ZRC doesn’t appreciate it when our own material is stolen by a third party either. But at the same time, we recognize that there are limits to the control a creator can, or rather should, be able to impose on the use of their work.

Last night when I logged into Youtube I saw that the ZRC’s account had a message; a video of ours had been flagged for containing someone else’s copyrighted content. That was interesting, I thought, since every single video in the ZRC Youtube channel was recorded, live and in person, by myself:

Your video, Bascom Hill Performs “I Won’t Back Down” at Capitol 2/26/2011 , may include content that is owned or administered by these entities:
Entity: EMI Publishing Content Type: Musical Composition

It turns out that EMI (or someone acting for them) has flagged the recording taken by the ZRC at the downtown political rally on 2/26, where the band ‘Bascom Hill’ performed a cover of Tom Petty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down’. EMI must represent ‘Bascom Hill’ as the original Petty song was released, according to Wikipedia, by MCA, which later became part of Universal. I can’t find anything to that effect on the ‘Bascom Hill’ website, and the notice posted in our Youtube account doesn’t actually say what EMI is claiming ownership *of*, just that someone says their content is in our video of a public performance on the steps of the Wisconsin Capitol during a public political rally.

Yes, you read that correctly. EMI, or someone acting on their behalf, is claiming that a public performance of someone else’s song on the steps of the Wisconsin Capitol, the most public space in the state, during a political rally, completely free and open to the public, belongs not to the person who recorded the video, nor to the person who originally recorded the song, nor to the public whose space and air was used for said political rally, but to them.

EMI owns the steps of the Wisconsin Capitol, or so it is claimed. Record video there at your peril.

*dun dun DUN*

This is a microcosm of everything that’s wrong with the copyright system, and a great example of why The ZRC voluntarily refuses to avail ourselves of the standard ‘protections’ of copyright, instead utilizing Creative Commons licensing for our art, shirts, prints and writing.

The original idea behind copyright was that if artists couldn’t get paid for their work they’d have to quit being artists; copyright is supposed to ENRICH and PROTECT public expression and creativity. Instead it has become an arcane tool of oppression, snuffing out creativity wherever it can be found in the name of protecting entrenched rights-holders who are as far removed from actual creativity as one can possibly imagine.

And now they want ownership of our public spaces too.

Youtube is of course free to enact whatever policies they want on videos they host, and I recognize that they’re not (necessarily) the bad guys here. They have to stay in business, and thus have to accede to the ridiculous and outrageous demands of the extremely well-heeled music industry or face the usual legal apocalypse.

At the same time, I don’t have to stand for it, to allow EMI to run ads alongside the video until the day they arbitrarily decide that it isn’t enough to own our video of our public space but that they want to vaporize it entirely. I’m removing the video from Youtube. EMI, or whoever acted on their behalf in this instance, can get bent.

The ZRC, on the other hand, knows that a public space belongs to the PUBLIC. We would never claim that, because a ZRC shirt, or poster, or pamphlet, or anything other creative work appears in public that we have the right to control forever and all time what others can do/say about that material. People can, and do, take our picture protesting all the time. Sometimes we give interviews. Never once, nor ever shall, the ZRC claim some special right to control that media coverage. The commons doesn’t belong to any one person, any one organization or company. It belongs to everyone.

At least until a record company says otherwise.

Tags: Music, Public Appearance, Social Justice

This entry was posted by John Sears on Monday, May 16th, 2011 at 9:07 am and is filed under ZRC News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.