COPYRIGHTS:
A CHOICE OF NO CHOICE FOR ARTISTS AND THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES;
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN IS LOSING ANYWAY
Joost Smiers
(3 May, 1999)
Joost Smiers est directeur du Centre de recherches de l'Université
des arts à Utrecht, Pays Bas, et professeur invité au Département des arts et
cultures du monde de l'Université de Californie à Los Angeles. Son dernier livre
est État des lieux de la création en Europe. Le tissu culturel
déchiré (L'Harmattan).
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Excerpt:
There exists convincing evidence that artistic life, which is an important segment in
every society, is better off when we give up the concept of copyrights. As a consequence, our
common artistic creativity will no longer be the exclusive possession of a handful of
intellectual property rights corporations. Knowledge and creativity become again an
essential element of the public domain. And, surprisingly enough, without the system of
copyrights many artists in western and non-western countries will be able to earn a
decent income!
Many reasons urge us to reconsider the copyright system which gives the exclusive
rights on knowledge and creativity to authors of different ilk. The reality, however,
is, that they appropriate artistic materials which exist already for a long time and
which actually belong to our common good. For instance, there is no poem created
without former poems. In our present culture we are inclined to forget that the
author or performer has used many sources - language, images, tonality, rhythms,
colours, movements, meanings, humour, and so on - which belong to our common
cultural and intellectual domain. Therefore there is no justification to claim
originality and as a result give an artist monopolistic rights on his or her work.
"Originality" is thus a misleading and romantic concept .