 |
|
More Related Stories |
| Page (3) of 3 - 02/18/03 |
 email article |
 print
page |
But I got into the creative arts for a reason, and that reason is that I wanted my art to be responsible for the infringement of individual liberties, for the destruction of lives, for the persecution of my audience. I wanted my art to give the government and corporations a reason to invade people's privacy so that I could wreck their livelihoods and--hope against hope--see their sorry carcasses hauled off to prison for a good five to 10 years! That's what art is about, at least for me, at least for one young adult who never let go of his innocent dreams.
Now, maybe, just maybe, I can still make my dreams come true. I've been working on an angle. See, Congress has the Constitutional power to protect original works, right? So let's say that we get Congress to supersede the Bill of Rights by granting an inordinate amount of power to copyright holders. Try to follow with me. Maybe they could pass some kind of an act whereby copyright owners like me could achieve a stranglehold on creative production. We could own everything outright, and people couldn't even discuss ways of subverting our stranglehold without winding up in prison. We could subpoena personal information without due process, confiscate property without due process, do just about anything we want without due process all because we hold the copyright to certain creative works that are the product of thousands of years of human endeavor.
You want to draw a picture of a unicorn crying? Sorry, buster, you're in jail! That was some other guy's idea. You want to paint with the color red? You want to write a song with a power chord? You want to shoot a film about a superhero? You want to write a book that begins with the words "It was a...?" You want to do a sitcom about a couple with a delightfully flamboyant neighbor? Sorry, sucker, they've all been done! You're in jail!
Oh, and what about the stupid audiences? Man, I want to hurt them so bad. Try to photocopy my book, will you? Thinking of using the "Save As" function in your browser to make an illegal copy of my article, are you? Copied my CD onto your hard drive, have you? Not so fast, sparky. My friend here in the FBI would like to have a little chat....
I know this sounds like the dreams of children. And, for the time being, that's all it will be. Oh, sure, we creative professionals get to wave our copyright notices around every now and again. We send letters to people asking them to stop distributing our material without our permission. We enjoin organized piracy outfits from profiting from our work. But measures like these are infantile. I mean, where's the hate? Where's the total disregard for the rights of others? Where's the feeling of power you can achieve only by totally destroying another human being's life because he or she dared to be interested in what you do?
I don't know, dear reader. I just don't know. Trust me when I say that if I could find any means of throwing you in jail and seizing your property for reading this article, I would. Truly I would. I just hate you so much. Let's at least hope it can come to that. Let's keep alive the notion that, against all odds, a boy can dream and that, with a bit of pluck and determination, that dream can come true.
Contact the author: Dave Nagel is the producer of Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; host of several World Wide User Groups, including Synthetik Studio Artist, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe LiveMotion, Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; and executive producer of the Digital Media Net family of publications. You can reach him at [email protected].
If you liked this article
click here to recommend it.
Page: Prev Page
1
2
3
Related Sites: Creative Mac , Digital Video Editing , Siggraph News , Broadcast Newsroom , Digital Media Designer , DTV Pro , Film Imaging , Oceania , MacAnimationPro , Digital Intermediates
Related Newsletter:
To Comment on This Article, Click HERE
Most Recent Reader Comments:
Click Here To Read All Posts
Must be Registered to Respond (Free Registration!!!, CLICK HERE)
Digital favorites
Source:Digital Media Online.
All Rights Reserved
