My Talk At Wikimedia: Copyright Impacts Everything

from the it-does dept

Last week, I mentioned that I was giving a talk at the Wikimedia Foundation about copyright. It was a fun time, and the video from the talk is now online. Unfortunately, the audio and the video are… not entirely great. I’d complain about the terrible microphone, but that sounds like a certain presidential candidate. The video is okay, but the colors are off, so my presentation looks a little weird. Either way, you should still be able to get the basics. There’s an introduction from Jan Gerlach at the Wikimedia Foundation, talking about all the important policy work they do, then my talk that runs about half an hour, followed by a Q&A with the audience that runs another half hour or so. It was a fun time, with a really great group of folks, and the conversation continued on after the official session ended for quite a while. Check it out:

Filed Under: , , , , ,
Companies: wikimedia

Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “My Talk At Wikimedia: Copyright Impacts Everything”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
8 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

Interesting talk.

Big challenge ahead I see for Mike is convincing artists that the current system of Copyright doesn’t benefit them. Many a starving artist may not be the most receptive to being told that the one thing they do have, an intangible “ownership” of the production of their art, might be weakened?

At least, that’s what you’re going to hear from a lot of people who have been convinced by the MAFIAA’s propaganda efforts.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

I don’t think it’s really the artists that need that much convincing. For instance so much art was derived from previous art and many artists would love to have a nice public domain to work from.

Copy protection laws were mostly made due at the request of corporate interests that have bought politicians. They even originated not because of artists but because of business interests.

It’s the politicians that need to be convinced. They need to be convinced that they will lose votes if they continue on their crusade to be bought by corporate interests. They need to be convinced that the public will no longer tolerate them selling out to the highest bidder at the expense of both artists and the public.

Anonymous Coward says:

You won’t have to convince many current artists of anything, in fact, they’d love an expanding public domain.

The challenge will be in convincing aging author and/or the "estates" (oh how that term makes me laugh) of long-dead ones that public domain is in the interest of creators.

Please note that "estates" are not usually creators, instead obtaining their benefits by sitting on existing rights, so good job doing that.

Even non-commercial use is no longer safe since its already nebulous definition has been expanded to not only exclude not-for-profit work but even pro-Bono work, if it results in "fame" for an entity (including not-for-profits).

Private use remains relatively safe in some cases. But private use means you can only display it to yourself (and maybe your immediate family) or only to staff, in the case of a corporation.

Dr. Edward Morbius (user link) says:

Audio / Transcript

Mike: I hunted down this article after trying to listen to that talk. As you said, horrible audio, with sound modulating very high and very low.

A transcript would really be great, or even your slides. Maybe a future (or past?) article. Alternatively, this is the sort of thing that renormalising audio levels with Audacity might fix, if you can con someone into doing that.

Add Your Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Ctrl-Alt-Speech

A weekly news podcast from
Mike Masnick & Ben Whitelaw

Subscribe now to Ctrl-Alt-Speech »
Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...