Earlier today I stopped on the way to the 'house project.' Turning on my iPhone 'hotspot', listening to The Current and finishing a lukewarm Mountain Dew I began this post with some thoughts about this new digital age, artistic work and copyright protection. Unfortunately all those thoughts were lost.
This past weekend there was a big fight, apparently. The cost to watch was high. Apparently the fight was re-broadcast by many people using the Periscope application (Periscope was brought to my attention by my daughter who is attuned to these emerging trends). Twitter purchased Periscope earlier this year for $100 million. Periscope competes with Meerkat. After hearing about HBO being all upset with those who set there iPhones in front of the TV and re-broadcast I immediately downloaded the application. I watched a couple of live feeds. One was a bored guy just talking and there were a couple of people eating at a restaurant.
Kids don't call each other much. They text and use Instagram. Photographers used to keep the negatives of images they created. Prints were marked with copyright notices. I'm not a copyright expert but I have appreciation of intellectual property and artistic work. During my 27-year gig my intent was always to be in compliance on intellectual property (e.g. software licensing) but that was also wrapped up tightly in contractual language. Many companies and individuals seem to enjoy beating those contracts, bootlegging whatever they can.
When I started using Instagram I did give a bit of thought to the issue that I was coughing up some good images. I'd have to go back and read the EULA (end user license agreement) for Instagram (and Twitter and Facebook) but I believe you give up your rights when you upload to those services. Some people seem to think Facebook is something like Al Gore's vision of the internet or www.craigslist.com. It's a money making program. One of the people I follow is a writer who published in several magazines. When he posts to Facebook he always adds a copyright notice at the end of his post.
What you post on Facebook as public content is fare game for anyone to use. There is a bit more potential protection on photos and images but at a practical level you've given Facebook carte blanche to do what they wish. I don't think the writer who adds the copyright notice understands this.
The copyright hitch with Periscope is that Twitter retains the feeds for some period of time. I suspect that they will cave under protest and Periscope will be live only. I'll have to watch some more live feeds there and on Meerkat. Certainly all the pay per view agreements will now have even more clear language and threats as is relates to rebroadcasting. In the old days we'd go downtown on Friday nights and watch TV on the sets in the Sears windows and before color TV was common we'd look in the neighbor's windows to watch. We probably should not re-broadcast protected content any more than photocopy (excessively) books and magazines, take screenshots of copyrighted web pages, selfies of classic art, etc. Periscope is not a deluxe experience. I'm not sure I can keep up with email, Twitter, texts, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Periscope demands on my time.
Copyright 2015 John F. Leeper
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