Monday, April 6, 2020

Copyright or Copy-wrong?

Hi Everyone,

This week we were blessed with the opportunity to learn more about copyright and its origins. From the reading we learned that “copyright grants legal protection to the ‘expression of an idea’,” and not to the work as an object or the “idea itself. The fixed expression is deemed to belong uniquely to someone—the photographer, writer, or painter—who created it” and is not transferred when a work is sold (Sturken and Cartwright 204).

Our textbook authors explain, “Copyright, taken literally, it means ‘the right to copy.’ The term refers to not one but a bundle of rights. This bundle includes the rights to distribute, produce, copy, display, perform, create, and control derivative works based on the original” (Sturken and Cartwright 204).

 For this blog assignment I think a great discussion would be the idea of fair use.

 YOUR TASK

 Find an example of a picture or a piece of art that was based on someone else’s original. It doesn’t have to be an exact 1:1 look alike. Then once you find the two try to decide if you think it violates copyright infringement or if it was a harmless recreation (i.e., fair use).

 Fair use is usually the legal basis on which art copyright cases have been argued. “A major factor in determining fair use is the question of whether the copy promotes or adds something new— whether it is transformative rather than simply derivative of the original”(Sturken and Cartwright 208).

 For example, this poster for the Hangover 3 got inspiration from the poster from the Harry Potter movie. I would go on to say that in my opinion I see this as a harmless recreation of the harry potter poster due to fair use. While the two posters look very similar the hangover poster is a parody of the original and very transformative in nature. The theme of the posters is the same, but the representation of the theme is very different.

Movie Poster for Hangover 3

You don’t have to, but it would be nice if you could mention any of the following things in your responses:

Is fair use actually fair? When does inspiration become mimicry?

Stay safe everyone. Stay home, wash your hands, and avoid touching your face. Maybe try to learn a new skill from home or something. We all have an insurmountable amount of free time now. I plan on using it to catch up on anime. Take care everybody,

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