“Copy! Damn it!”, the documentary on the right to copy

By pepi On May 12, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In copyright & copyleft, Countries, Law, society, Spain, Trends

To me, copying means the “Genesis of Creation”, (Javier de la Cueva)

As you might already know, the Copyright is a set of rights given by law to the author of an original work, which includes, in Europe, both economic and moral rights. It is not, itself, a License. A License is a legal “contract” by which the owner of the rights decides to give permission to use in a certain way a certain work or works. Authors can decide to have their works protected under the Copyright as is, from the birth of their creation, or they can decide to license it under a copyleft license, and thus, grant some permissions to use their work in ways not permitted if only the Copyright were used as is.

Some months ago, in Spain, it was released a documentary called “Copiad malditos!” (“Copy! Damn it!”, or the right to copy, my translation), which explains the process to license your work under the Copyleft, in this case, Creative Commons. They also explain what is the current legal and social situation in the Country. One of the main topics in the Documentary has been the Spanish Collecting Society, SGAE, which has very aggressive collecting policies. SGAE only recognizes the copyright and thus, associated authors have difficulties if they wish to license their work with copyleft licenses.

The strategies of this collecting society are being broadly discussed, not only by authors, but also by associations or even whole communities. This is the case of Montijo, a small town situated in Extremadura. The City Hall has already announced they won’t pay the royalties to the SGAE anymore. One extreme case is Hassan’s. He is from the Lebanon and has a restaurant in the village. He usually listens to his small CD player music from the Lebanon (which you can only buy there). The SGAE sent him a letter to pay royalties for “using copyrighted material to amuse the business”, thus theoretically he has to pay. The aim of this collecting society is to distribute its benefits among its members in Spain. I doubt very much that they are going to send those “collected royalties” to groups of music from the Lebanon… Montijo and its inhabitants, fed up of “this robbery”, decided to create ADEMYC, an association the aim of which is to teach you how to avoid the collecting society (by using music from Jamendo for your business, for example).

The Documentary’s filmmaker & director, Stéphane M. Grueso, shows us how something as complicated as a Documentary can be licensed under a Creative Commons License. His Lawyer, a re-known Spanish IP Lawyer, Javier de la Cueva, explains, in a very simple way, how he can achieve his goals.

Internet has changed the rules of the game. Old-fashioned businesses have to adapt themselves to the new environment if they don’t want to be eliminated from it. The key in this transition period is to realize that the market has changed and is still changing, and to adapt to it, as species do in this world. Unfitted species will be extinguished in favor of more suited ones. This is what’s happening right now with the Cinema and Music. Children growing up today are less likely to go to the cinema unless there is a good reason for it. Instead, they’ll prefer other options, much more related to Internet than to physical places. Examples like iTunes (either you buy the film or you rent it), Filmotech in Spain or Netflix in the US give us hints on where the market is going: Internet.

A Spanish Film Project is another example. El Cosmonauta is a film made and thought in a very different way. Any Internet user interested in the project could be a producer. From 2 euros onwards you become part of the project. You can download the script, you can become a producer, you can purchase merchandise, you can interact with the crew… A whole new way to bring the film making process to as many people as possible, and all thanks to the Internet. Music is also transforming. Netlabels like Autoreverse proposes you another way to see your CD out in the market. The distribution way has changed thanks to Internet.

Traditional publishers are also in “trouble” if they do not adapt to the new rules of the market. New publishing companies like Traficantes de Sueños are offering books both in a printed commercial version, and a digital free version, under copyleft licenses.

In the documentary is also mentioned “la Ley Sinde“, a Bill, which, among other provisions, states that it would be possible to close down web sites offering P2P links, without a due process in Court, that is, without a Judge deciding. While this is happening, TVs are not respecting the existing Copyright Law and are broadcasting content from Youtube, without any kind of permission from the author who did the video, or even checking if that person holds the rights of that video. The so-called “right of citation”, used for cultural purposes, is either used in a wrong way by big Media Corporations, or misunderstood by the general public, thinking they do not even have such right.

Cultural Campaigns to teach the Copyright to kids made by the CEDRO, another Spanish collecting society, are misleading. Under the copyright law, people have the right of the “private copy”, however, in the material of this campaign, kids are taught that the “private copy” is a bad thing. The main problem here is that “commercial culture” is being mixed with “free culture”. Commercial Culture is that culture which emanates from commercial circles (including big businesses, publishing companies, etc). But, there is another side of our “culture”, what we call Free Culture. What a kid does and uploads to the web is also culture. The song my grandpa composed and sings for the family is also culture, not only the one you buy into the shopping malls. “If you attack big labels, the industry, you attack the culture”. This way of imposed thinking on us is just WRONG.

Not everything in this world has to be profit and money. We, humans, need to create to feel realized and complete. We feel a strong feeling to discover, go beyond boundaries. We want to share with others our discoveries and be recognized. Just that. Money just gives us the means for the living, but creation gives us the means for our souls. We did not arrive where we are now because of the profit, but because of our capacity of creation. The first human who invented a way to control the fire, or the human who used his brains on how to get more wheat to feed his family, or other million creations, technical and cultural, we’ve made during centuries were not simply made because of profit, but because of a million other reasons. Among them: the will of creating something to feel good sharing it with others.

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