Copyright, Anti-Copyright and Copyleft
Logo Source: Wikipedia
I visited the British Museum (BM) earlier this week and was pleasantly shocked to discover that photography was permitted inside the museum. My first reaction was to give my (camera) trigger happy fingers some exercise, and my second was to acknowledge what a great PR tactic it was to allow visitors to pose next to their favourite museum piece.
But then questions about copyright began cropping up in my mind and remained persistent even as I posted some pictures taken at the BM on Facebook as well as my Picasa Web album.
Copyright has always been and remains a contentious issue today. I will not discuss the finer points of what exactly copyright is here, but will let this rather delightful video do it. It is rather long, but do watch it.
Video Source: Fibertech3
There have been many PR campaigns, particularly in the US, the UK and Canada, to ‘educate’ the public about copyright infringement. Examples of some initiatives are Captain Copyright, Piracy is Theft, and You Wouldn’t Steal a Car.
In spite of the campaigns being on legally and ethically correct issues, none of these made any significant impact. In fact, the Captain Copyright campaign was withdrawn within 6 months as it was felt that the climate around copyright issues would not allow the initiative to be successful.
Anti-copyright activists feel that copyright laws do not benefit society as a whole; it only benefits a few at the expense of creativity. They also feel that knowledge is for humanity and should be shared. There have been an equal number of campaigns against copyright, with the most notable among them arguably being the Defective by Design initiative.
Copyleft is not anti-copyright as is commonly misunderstood. It removes restrictions on distribution and multiple usage and allows for sharing as long as the author of the creative product is acknowledged. Voluntary contribution, rather than a mandatory payment, is encouraged. A lot of freeware and shareware operate under the copyleft policy as do many publications brought out by the not-for-profit organisations and charities.
An important point to be noted here is that both copyleft and anti-copyright have no legal standing, in spite of having very vocal supporters for these issues. It is interesting to note that PR campaigns have been used in all the 3 categories of ‘rights’, with varying results.
According to Marion Long (2000), copyright ‘infringement is largely committed by people who believe that what they are doing is an ordinary and respectable thing.’ And I agree with her.
At the TISS bookshop (where I work), I regularly come across groups of students who buy one book and then rush out to make photocopies of the same book for others in the group. These students do not think that they are violating copyright as they feel that they are entitled to knowledge in a way that they see fit!
What is the role that PR has to play in such a scenario, particularly when there is such a strong sentiment against copyright? Is copyleft the way to go? Should anti-copyright be encouraged? Should copyright laws be amended keeping in mind the ‘popular’ sentiment?
Cartoon Source: www.metasurfing.blogspot.com
I feel that awareness building on the issue of copyright has failed completely, not only in the West but all over the world as well. It is time for a re-look at the copyright laws and consider them being amended in tune with today’s needs and technological challenges. Obviously, these laws have to be realistic, implementable and acceptable by most. It sounds impossible, but I feel that PR can play a big role in lobbying for this change to happen.
Endnote: Yesterday, I visited the National Gallery of Art with my camera, but was not allowed to take any photographs. 
Tags: Anti-Copyright, Copyleft, Copyright, PR Campaigns, Public Relations
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December 22, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I came to this blog through another blog and was fascinated to read about copyright, and other stuff. But isn’t PR the same as advertising? Why do you keep calling the advertisements PR?