28 October 2010
BEIRUT: The war on prohibition failed, and so will the war on piracy if the world does not begin to create a balance between copyright owners and media pirates, said leading American academic and political activist Lawrence Lessig this week.
In collaboration with the Kamal Abou Zahr Law firm, Creative Commons, a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon and share legally, attempted to brief the Lebanese public about how to efficiently deal with the outdated copyright issues of our time.
The lecture was held at the headquarters on the Beirut Bar Association Tuesday.
“[Copyright] law has gotten out of sync with the technology. It needs to be updated in light of this new technology, ”said Lessig.
The Creative Commons founder, who is also the director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center of Ethics at Harvard University discussed ways that his organization has been able to bridge a gap between the professional and the amateur when it comes to copyright licenses.
Creative Commons enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through legal tools, where the professional can decide the conditions of how other people can use their work.
Today’s technology has given people the ability to remix copyrighted materials for artistic and creative purposes, but because the law supports a read-only culture, it does not recognize the idea of re-interpretation.
Though Creative Commons does protect the artist’s right to choose, it is not an alternative to copyright.
Creative Commons licenses work alongside copyright to allow creators to adjust the terms of their copyright in order to decide how others can use the artist’s work.
“Copyright is a personal right. It is given to the artist automatically and I think it is extremely important that the law protects the artist;s right to choose,” Lessig told The Daily Star.
Lessig believes that while the United States might think that Creative Commons is weakening the concept of copyright, and that this should be protected, other countries might be more receptive toward the idea of some rights reserved versus all rights reserved, especially in a country such as Lebanon, where people can’t easily buy or download copyrighted material due to high costs and lack of accessibility.
For more information on Creative Commons, go to www.creativecommons.org
Copyright The Daily Star 2010.
