For my context of practice project I will need to contact various different people in order to get their views on what relevance letter press has to graphic design in today's society and the reasons why they use the age old hands on method. I hope by doing this research it will help to get a few different opinions for people that use it for different reasons.
Here are a few I have come across. These are just a selection out of a larger list of institutions and printers etc.
Institutions who teach letter press
Camberwell College : http://www.camberwellpress.org
Leeds College of Art : http://www.leeds-art.ac.uk/
Central st Martins : http://www.arts.ac.uk/csm/
The Manchester School of Art : http://www.artdes.mmu.ac.uk/resources/print/letterpress/
Letterpress workshops / studios
DO YOU PUNCTUATE - Leeds : http://www.doyoupunctuate.com/
THE PRINT PROJECT - Bradford : Nick http://theprintproject.co.uk/
ARTCADIA LETTER PRESS - Shrewsbury : http://www.artcadia.co.uk
GLASGOW PRESS - Glasgow : http://glasgowpress.co.uk/
GENERATION PRESS - Brighton : http://generationpress.co.uk/
FIRE CRACKER PRESS - St Louis : http://www.firecrackerpress.com/
DOWNEY & CO - http://www.downey.co.uk/
Graphic Designers
Kerr Vernon: http://www.kerrvernon.co.uk/
Anthony Burrill : http://www.anthonyburrill.com/
Helen Ingham : http://www.hi-artz.co.uk/
I think I will talk to amber about anyone else that she might recommend to help me with my research. I want to try and interview graphic designers who regularly produce letter pressed work and find out the reasons they do this and also their views on letter press in the 21st century.
From here I need to write up interview / questionnaires in order to send off to each of the organizations on my list. I also would like to organize some kind of studio visit to get photos and also see how things are done etc. This will be perfect for my research.
Wednesday 30 October 2013
Tuesday 29 October 2013
COP DIRECTION CHANGE...AGAIN
After my horrific experience on Friday carrying out my presentation I realized that I had some serious thinking to do about exactly what I wanted to concentrate on and why. My research has taken so many turns along the way after switching to censorship I realized that I had completely swayed away from why I originally wanted to carry out my research and that was to look at the printing press not the web. So this weekend I sat down and thought about how I could keep my topic of the printing press but make it more relevant to today and somehow manage to use all the research I have already done for my project which is quite substantial even though it is significantly historic at the moment.
So for my new Idea I want to look at what role the printing press has in today's society and how this is relevant to the graphic designer in the 21st century. I feel that letterpress is a magnificent process which has had one of the biggest impacts on the world out of any invention known to man causing the mass enlightenment and the spread of new ideas and theories. I want to look at how this machine went from being a weapon of mass dissemination to a specialized process reserved for mainly image making nowadays as apposed to a typographic machine for dissemination. Obviously as cheaper printing methods came about like offset litho the letterpress business took a rapid decline in production, but in the past 10 years or so there has been a resurgance of letter pressed design work and I want to investigate why this is happening and work out why the letter press is still relevant to graphic design today.
Primary Research
Contact Letter Press
I think this will be a fun research project and will allow me to carry out sufficient primary and practical research. In order to find out how the industry has changed and what letter press is now most commonly used for I will have to contact various Letter press work shops in order to find out what type of work they are involved with and their views and opinions on letter press in today's society and why its becoming more relevant in today's society. This will also help to find out the limitations and benefits of the press, and I will hopefully get some hands on help and experience to help me along the way if I'm lucky.
Contact Graphic Designers who work with Letter Press
By contacting graphic Designers who use letter press I can find out their reasonin behind why they use this process. By talking to designers it will help to build up an inderstanding of the positives of letter press but also the problems. This will also be a good resource for tips and hints on the process itsself and also to find out their opinions on the industry and the machinery. It will also be interesting to try find out what they think the future of letterpress is. With the new technology of 3d printing getting cheasper and cheaper it may be possible to create new sets of 3D printed letter forms for the press which opens up a whole new world of digital fonts for practical printing methods.
Contacting Universities which offer letterpress or that are currently introducing the process
I think by contacting Universities it will give a 3rd point of view on the relevance of letter press in todays society. it will also be interesting to find out why they offer the service or why they have recently decided to introduce the press. There is obviously reasons to why this is beneficial to the world of graphic design and how it helps with the practice. It is obviously important to teach type setting and helps build layout and gridding skills as everything needs to be precise and exact.
Practical Response
In terms of my practical response I will create some form of letter pressed book / booklet which Promotes letter press to the graphic design community and looks at the relevance it has in today's society whilst also highlighting its historical significance and why its important to carry on with printing traditions. By creating letter pressed aspects of the book it will inform me on the process and also help to build on my typography skills. I can analyze my experience with the letter press machine also which will help my personal practice.
Random Question List
I wrote a series of questions that will probably need answering to complete my research. I think getting opinions from people with different involvements with letter press will really help to triangulate and compare my research.
The alluree of handmade
Establishing conventions
So for my new Idea I want to look at what role the printing press has in today's society and how this is relevant to the graphic designer in the 21st century. I feel that letterpress is a magnificent process which has had one of the biggest impacts on the world out of any invention known to man causing the mass enlightenment and the spread of new ideas and theories. I want to look at how this machine went from being a weapon of mass dissemination to a specialized process reserved for mainly image making nowadays as apposed to a typographic machine for dissemination. Obviously as cheaper printing methods came about like offset litho the letterpress business took a rapid decline in production, but in the past 10 years or so there has been a resurgance of letter pressed design work and I want to investigate why this is happening and work out why the letter press is still relevant to graphic design today.
Primary Research
Contact Letter Press
I think this will be a fun research project and will allow me to carry out sufficient primary and practical research. In order to find out how the industry has changed and what letter press is now most commonly used for I will have to contact various Letter press work shops in order to find out what type of work they are involved with and their views and opinions on letter press in today's society and why its becoming more relevant in today's society. This will also help to find out the limitations and benefits of the press, and I will hopefully get some hands on help and experience to help me along the way if I'm lucky.
Contact Graphic Designers who work with Letter Press
By contacting graphic Designers who use letter press I can find out their reasonin behind why they use this process. By talking to designers it will help to build up an inderstanding of the positives of letter press but also the problems. This will also be a good resource for tips and hints on the process itsself and also to find out their opinions on the industry and the machinery. It will also be interesting to try find out what they think the future of letterpress is. With the new technology of 3d printing getting cheasper and cheaper it may be possible to create new sets of 3D printed letter forms for the press which opens up a whole new world of digital fonts for practical printing methods.
Contacting Universities which offer letterpress or that are currently introducing the process
I think by contacting Universities it will give a 3rd point of view on the relevance of letter press in todays society. it will also be interesting to find out why they offer the service or why they have recently decided to introduce the press. There is obviously reasons to why this is beneficial to the world of graphic design and how it helps with the practice. It is obviously important to teach type setting and helps build layout and gridding skills as everything needs to be precise and exact.
Practical Response
In terms of my practical response I will create some form of letter pressed book / booklet which Promotes letter press to the graphic design community and looks at the relevance it has in today's society whilst also highlighting its historical significance and why its important to carry on with printing traditions. By creating letter pressed aspects of the book it will inform me on the process and also help to build on my typography skills. I can analyze my experience with the letter press machine also which will help my personal practice.
Random Question List
I wrote a series of questions that will probably need answering to complete my research. I think getting opinions from people with different involvements with letter press will really help to triangulate and compare my research.
- How has the role of the printing press changed?
- What role does the printing press play in today's society?
- Why has the role of the printing press changed?
- Who uses letterpress today?
- What are the main uses of letter press in today's society?
- What educational benefits does the letter press machine offer to the graphic designer?
- What are the limitations of the letter press?
- What are the positives and negatives of the printing press?
- Who is the leading face of letter press today?
- What are the social and economic factors surround letter press today?
- Why is it important to carry on these traditions?
- What is the History of the printing press?
- What significant events has the printing press influenced?
- Why has their been a resurgence of letterpress?
- What is the future for letter press?
- Print or digital, how does it compare?
- How has the industry changed and why?
- What are the costs involved with letter press?
- Why do people want letter pressed work?
- How many types of letter press machines are they?
- How many letterpress studios are there in the UK?
- What are the letter press trends?
- How sustainable is the letter press machine?
- How can I make letterpress more popular?
- How do digital designers design for letterpress?
The alluree of handmade
- Design
- Freedom
- Durability
- Conventions
- Physical Substance
- Standards
Establishing conventions
- Scholar Printers
- The Jobbing printer
- Artistic Printers
- Mechanization of Casting and Typesetting
- Arts and Crafts Movement
- Private Presses
Wednesday 23 October 2013
Organising your Research project
Check out this Book
Quantitative & Qualitative
What am I doing?
What am I trying to Achieve?
What methodology suits my project best ?
What Data do I need?
Quantitative : statistical, numerical answers
Qualitative : content, theory, philosophy
Different strategies will be needed for different research
Reflective practice
Planning the Project
•Write
down all questions that you want to investigate
•Consider
each on their merits and focus on two (primary & secondary)
•Write
an A4 ‘first thoughts’ sheet for each
•What
is the purpose of the study? Is your question researchable?
•Decide
on a Working Title
COME UP WITH A PLAN FOR THE REST OF THE MODULE
WRITE DOWN AS MANY QUESTIONS AS POSSIBLE - NARROW DOWN TO A COUPLE
FOCUS!
1 DRIVING THEME / QUESTION
+ 1 SECONDARY ONE
Write out a 1st thought sheet
What am I trying to achieve?
is it achievable?
Why am do I want to research it?
What do I want to do?
DECIDE ON A WORKING TITLE
COME UP WITH A PLAN FOR THE REST OF THE MODULE
WRITE DOWN AS MANY QUESTIONS AS POSSIBLE - NARROW DOWN TO A COUPLE
FOCUS!
1 DRIVING THEME / QUESTION
+ 1 SECONDARY ONE
Write out a 1st thought sheet
What am I trying to achieve?
is it achievable?
Why am do I want to research it?
What do I want to do?
DECIDE ON A WORKING TITLE
Project Outline
•Consider
timing
•DEADLINE-
12 WEEKS TODAY
•Consider
holidays / work / life
•Think
about your working title and the different component parts that need
researching.
•Allocate
timings to each
•Draw
up a project outline based on the above
•Allow
generous time for initial reading and writing up
•Factor
in tutorials
•CONSULT
WITH YOUR SUPERVISOR ABOUT THIS
What is the key material on the topic?
What material is already out there?
Pick the essentials
Remember Journals
Come up with a system for organizing research and referencing
Ethical Implications
•Does
the research involve human participants?
•Does
the study involve participants who are particularly vulnerable or unable to
give informed consent
•Will
it be necessary for participants to take part in the study without their
knowledge and consent at the time? (e.g. covert observation of people in
non-public places)
•Will
the study involve discussion of sensitive topics (e.g. sexual activity, drug
use)?
•Are
there issues of safety for the investigators or subjects?
•Could
the study induce psychological stress or anxiety or cause harm or negative
consequences beyond the risks encountered in normal life?
•Will
financial inducements (other than reasonable expenses and compensation for
time) be offered to participants?
•Will
deception be necessary, i.e. will participants take part without knowing the
true purpose of the study or without their knowledge/consent at the time (e.g.
covert observation of people in non-public places)?
•Will
blood or tissues samples be obtained from participants?
•Might
permission for the study need to be sought from the researcher’s or from
participants’ employes
•Will
participants’ anonymity be compromised or their right to anonymity be withheld
or information they give be identifiable as theirs?
•Will
participants’ right to withdraw from the study at any time be withheld or not
made explicit?
Questionnaires
•Is a
questionnaire the best way of investigating your topic?
•If
so, begin to word questions and discuss with your supervisor
•Avoid
ambiguity, imprecision or assumption.
•Also
avoid double, leading, presuming or offensive questions
•Question
Type?
•Think
about format / appearance
•Always
pilot your questionnaire
•Decide
on sample size
•Specify
a return deadline (factor this into your project outline)
•Record
responses as soon as complete
Dissertation Plan - How Does the Censorship of Information Affect Society - (Printing press & Internet)
I have wrote a rough plan of what I want to include within my dissertation and the questions I would like answering. I have slightly veered off again with my idea and have been researching into censorship and how this is also becoming present in today's society. What we essentially saw 500 years ago with the printing press we are experiencing today with the use of the internet. Many countries have censorship software installed which limits the population from accessing certain websites. I think this is wrong in my opinion and it essentially keeps the world sheltered from what is going on. By blocking information the government are essentially censoring reality, it is a forma of social control dictating what we can and cant access information to.
There is allot going on with the web at the moment and many file sharing sites seem to be under attack for copyright laws. But in today's society these laws have been pushed to the extreme and nowadays everyone is being sued left right and center in a world that revolves around money. The copyright law used to be there in order to protect creativity but nowadays its just as tool to milk money out of those who break the law. The essay will look at the affects of the printing press and how censorship was a bad option then and how It is happening all over again in today's society, different information is being censored now to what it was back then but we are still experiencing a war on our freedom of speech. Times are changing and the industries need to change with the technology and not sue or censor those who are essentially paving the way for the future. I want to look at who is being affected now a days and the social and moral implications of this and try and explore the benefits of this powerful technology, whilst also taking into account points of view from both aspects of the argument.
Introduction
What is censorship?
What methods have been used in the past?
How has censorship affected society?
Why is the dissemination of information important?
What I will be looking at?
What I want to find out...
The Printing Press
Brief History of the press / Gutenberg
Why was this a break through in communication?
The Internet
Conclusion
In terms of primary research, I am slightly struggling to think of ways I can go about getting the information I need. The only thing I can think to do is to carry out surveys / questionaires finding out about peoples experiences with cencorship and first had accounts of why they censor or why they have been censored.
Questionaire / Survey - General Public
For my practical response to the brief I want to look at how we are being censored online and in our everyday lives. I think that we are being kept in the dark about allot of things and I want to create a publication which educates the public about the risks we face if we allow our government to restrict our access to information. We can see how badly this works in other countries and is just a method of control. There are obviously reasons for censoring certain information but in a way it is censoring the truth of the world, and the population needs to be kept in the loop. We have to be careful what information we take on board nowadays because the media is built on a bunch of lies in order to keep the government on the peoples good side.
There is allot going on with the web at the moment and many file sharing sites seem to be under attack for copyright laws. But in today's society these laws have been pushed to the extreme and nowadays everyone is being sued left right and center in a world that revolves around money. The copyright law used to be there in order to protect creativity but nowadays its just as tool to milk money out of those who break the law. The essay will look at the affects of the printing press and how censorship was a bad option then and how It is happening all over again in today's society, different information is being censored now to what it was back then but we are still experiencing a war on our freedom of speech. Times are changing and the industries need to change with the technology and not sue or censor those who are essentially paving the way for the future. I want to look at who is being affected now a days and the social and moral implications of this and try and explore the benefits of this powerful technology, whilst also taking into account points of view from both aspects of the argument.
Introduction
What is censorship?
What methods have been used in the past?
How has censorship affected society?
Why is the dissemination of information important?
What I will be looking at?
What I want to find out...
The Printing Press
Brief History of the press / Gutenberg
Why was this a break through in communication?
- Importance of Dissemination of Information
- Reformation / Scientific Revolution / Renaissance
- Spread of New ideas and Theories
- Enlightenment
- Standardization of Information
- Reorganization of data
- Research Collection changed
- Changed the way we learn
- Accelerated new science and knowledge
- Ability to collaborate and improve results
- Social Concerns - bridged the gap between town and gown
- Who enforced censorship
- What did they censor?
- Why they did do it?
- What affects did this have?
- How did they do it?
- Where did it happen?
- Who was censored?
The Internet
- How has communication progressed?
- Why was the internet created?
- Why do we use the internet?
- What are the uses today?
- Who uses it?
- How has it changed the way we learn?
- Links between the press and web
- Social concerns of the web
- Who is enforcing the censorship?
- Where is this happening?
- What is being Censored?
- Why is it being Censored?
- Who is affected by censorship?
- How is being done?
- What are the social and moral concerns?
- Examples - Pirate Bay
- Wiki leaks shows what governments are trying to cover up.
Conclusion
- Whats in store for the future with a censored web?
- Summary of arguement.
- Importance of freedom of speech
- Importance of protecting youth
In terms of primary research, I am slightly struggling to think of ways I can go about getting the information I need. The only thing I can think to do is to carry out surveys / questionaires finding out about peoples experiences with cencorship and first had accounts of why they censor or why they have been censored.
Questionaire / Survey - General Public
- What are their views on internet censorship
- What do they think internet censorship is
- What content they think is being blocked
- Does this affect them
- Have they ever experienced any online censorship? - youtube, unrestricted access, country specific, social media
- How they think this affects others
- What are their social concerns with censorship
- What are risks
- Why do they censor the web?
- What is blocked?
- What is their views on mass internet censorship?
- Do they think it is beneficial or a hinderence?
- How do you decided what is deemed unfit for viewing?
- Is this an internal policy?
- Photography of Censored information / adverts
- Internet Restrictions / Blocked websites
For my practical response to the brief I want to look at how we are being censored online and in our everyday lives. I think that we are being kept in the dark about allot of things and I want to create a publication which educates the public about the risks we face if we allow our government to restrict our access to information. We can see how badly this works in other countries and is just a method of control. There are obviously reasons for censoring certain information but in a way it is censoring the truth of the world, and the population needs to be kept in the loop. We have to be careful what information we take on board nowadays because the media is built on a bunch of lies in order to keep the government on the peoples good side.
- Find ways in which I can censor information
- "Censorship doesn't tell the truth"
- "Censorship causes blindness"
- "Sorry page not found 404 error"
- "Corruption causes censorship" - big money
- "Content not available in your country"
- "Books Burn Ideas Dont"
- How can censorship affect everyday life?
- Cut out elements
- Cover up - stickers
- Perferations
- Hidden content
- CODES? - secret codes
Tuesday 22 October 2013
PIRATE BAY - STEAL THIS FILM NOTES
Notes & Quotes:
- Piracy has been around for ages. The tape recorder, VCR etc. All been through it before.
- They sue a few people heavily in order to intimidate a larger number of people.
- Intellectual property is a ridiculous "war" about the production reproduction and distribution of information : Mark Getty biggest owner of intellectual property.
- "The fact that the DVD writer is the new weapon of mass destruction in the world, is primarily because a 50billlion dollar film can be reproduced at the cost of roughly 10 or 15 cents" Lawrence Liang
- This has happened before, "People like to see the contemporary, and the digital era as some kind of unique break, and i think the important point here is not to see it as a unique break, but as a momet that aculates things that have already happened in the past." Lawrence Liang
- Before the press information was fairly scarce and easy to control, The scriabl culture hand picked the people that were given the code to transmit information. People were starved for more books.
- They used to have books that were chained up and guarded as it was very dangerous for people to have access to such books.
- The printing press threatened the control over the spread of ideas.
- The printing press was seen as the unholy work of the devil.
- The printers were hunted down if they printed forbidden text.
- Elizabeth Einstein, "The printers were the ones who were hunted down if they printed the forbidden text"
- "Printing becomes associated with rebellion and emancipation." Einstein.
- The state was very powerful in its attempt to control the printed word,but not only was it incapable of the spreading of revolutionary thought, its very existence, inspired new parallel pirate systems of distribution
- France had loads of printers who smuggled books out of the country.
- Pirates had agents in Paris who were sending pages of books which they thought would do well. They wanted to promote banned books.
- In effect you have 2 systems at war with one another. And its the system of production outside france which is crucial for the enlightenment, not only did the new media system spread the enlightment, but it indited the old regime that this power of public opinion became crucial in the collapse of the government in 7887 - 1788" Bob Darton Princeton Uni
- Emergence of undisciplined reading public, which were not subject to the same norms of reading or our relation to knowledge as it was in the past was the dramatic shift
- "The fundamental urge to copy had nothing to do with technology its about how culture is created, but of course technology changes what we can copy, how quickly we can copy and we can share it "Felix Stadler - Media Theorist
- "What happens when a copying mechanism is invented, we can take the printing press or Bittorrent, it shapes peoples habits, it gives people completely new ideas, how they can work, how they can work together, how they can share, what they can relate to and what their lives can be," Sebastian Lutgert - Pirate cinema
- "There's no way that an absolutist political system can totally suppress the spread of information, the new media adapt themselves to these circumstances, and often can become even more effective because of the repression." Bob Darton Princeton Uni
- Communicating in itself is an act of copying
- "The one technique that brought us to where we are is copying." Sebastian Lutgert - Pirate cinema
- "Sharing is at the heart of in some sense existence, communication the need to talk to someone is an act of sharing, the need to listen to someone is an act of sharing" Lawrence Liang
- Our urge to communicate is so strong that we have always pushed the tools available to us to the limit then gone beyond them, creating new technologies that reproduce our ideas on previously unimaginable scales.
- ARPA - Networking computers Joseph Licklider heralds of resource sharing 1972 was designed in order to share computer resources. They shared resources easily and was a massive shift from the cooperate and commercial communication systems of the past.
- "one of the really important characteristics of the internet, is that its extremely decentralized, and that the services on the internet are invented and operated by other network users." Seth Schoen EFF
- "The network is built so that there is no one in charge, everyone is in charge of their own communications" Aaron Swartz Cofounder of reddit.com
- "The war on piracy is failing for social reasons, people like to communicate, people likle to share things, people like to transform things and technology makes it so easy that theres no way of stopping it." Felix Stadler - Media Theorist
- "The principle here is that you are engaging in internet communication as it was origonally designed, you are able to serve content as well as consume." Siva Vaidhyanathan University of Virginia
- There is no way they can stop piracy as the information has already been disseminated.
- When the pirate bay got shut down during the raid, Amsterdam information exchange (AM 6) reported that 35% of all the European internet traffic vanished in a couple of hours.
- Grime scene - they take copyrighted beats and create their own music.
- "people have lamented much, the death of the author, What we are witnessing now is far beyond, its the becoming of producers of former consumers, and that suggests a new economic model for society." Sebastian Lutgert - Pirate cinema.
- "One of the things that intrigues me tremendously about the proliferation of material thats out there in the world for people to grab, is the potential creation of millions of new authors" Rick Prelinger Prelinger Active
- "Thanks to the internet, thanks to digital technologies the gate keepers have really been removed" Fred von Lohmann Attornet EFF
- "People can take more of their cultural enviornment, make it their own, use it as found materials to put together their own expressions, do their own research, do their own communications, create their own communities when they need collaboration with others, rather than relying on a limited set of institutions, or on a set of materials that their not allowed to use without asking permission" Yochai Benkier Yale Law school
- "We live in a world in which absolute abundance of information is an aspect of everyday fact for a lot of us, and this means we have a certain attitude towards the idea of information as property. Its like you've heard sharing is in our blood, so the struggle to hold onto knowledge and creativity as a commodity by force, its going to be met by our strong urge to share copy and cooperate" League of Noble Peers
- Its the terrorism of the mind that actually sustains concepts like intellectual property, its a terrorism that's grounded on an idea of brutal repression of that which is actually possible. Lawrence Liang
- One of the things that we are seeing coming out is culture where things are produced, because people care about it and not necessarily because they think people will buy it, what we will see is things made by the people for themselves." Felix Stadler - Media Theorist
- "Lets build a world that we are actually going to be proud of, not just a profitable world for a few very large media companies" Brewster Kahle Internet Archive
- "Making money is not the point with culture or media, making something is the point of media", Peter Munde
- "A force like this, a power like this, zillions of people connected, sharing data, sharing their work sharing the work of others. This situation is unprecedented in human history and is a force that will not be stopped." Sebastian Lutgert - Pirate cinema
- "We all produce information, we all distribute it , we cant stop ourselves, its like breathing, and when we stop doing it we will be dead." League of Noble Peers
Two parts, and one special The Pirate Bay trial edition of the first part, have been released so far, and The League of Noble Peers is working on "Steal this Film - The Movie" and a new project entitled "The Oil of the 21st Century".
- Thematically, Part 2 "examines the technological and enforcement end of the copyright wars, and on the way that using the internet makes you a copier, and how copying puts you in legal jeopardy.
- It discusses Mark Getty's assertion that 'intellectual property is the oil of the 21st century'.
- Part 2 draws parallels between the impact of the printing press and the internet in terms of making information accessible beyond a privileged group or "controllers".
- The argument is made that the decentralized nature of the internet makes the enforcement of conventional copyright impossible. Adding to this the internet turns consumers into producers, by way of user generated content, leading to the sharing, mashup and creation of content not motivated by financial gains. This has fundamental implications for market-based media companies.
- The documentary asks "How will society change" and states "This is the Future - And it has nothing to do with your bank balance".
- The film is famous partly for being one of the most downloaded documentaries to date. Part One was released through an arrangement with The Pirate Bay; the filesharing site marketed Steal This Film in place of its own pirate ship logo. This produced millions of downloads for the film and catapulted it to wide recognition on the Internet after it hit Digg, Slashdot, Reddit and other online centers of attention.
- Steal This Film (Part 2) was distributed in a similar manner, but with more trackers and indexes involved, including Isohunt and Mininova. Estimates of the total current downloads of the film hover at around the 6 million mark via bittorrent alone. Since the creators have not attempted to restrict copying, the film is also available on YouTube, Google Video and many other web-based video service.
- Anti-copyright refers to the complete or partial opposition to prevalent copyright laws. Copyright is known as the owner's right for copies to be only made by the owner or with his/her authorization in form of a license.
- The classic argument for copyright is the view that granting developers temporary monopolies over their works encourages further development and creativity by giving the developer a source of income; normally copyright is enforced within a framework of the Berne Convention, instigated by Victor Hugo and first enacted in 1886.
- A central anti-copyright argument is that copyright has never been of net benefit to society and instead serves to enrich a few at the expense of creativity.
- Some anti-copyright groups may question the logic of copyright on economic and cultural grounds. Also, in the context of the Internet and Web 2.0 it can be argued that copyright law needs to be adapted to modern information technology.
Anti Copyright - Economic Arguments
Copyright results in a weaker incentive at creativity:
"The evolution of copyright from an occasional grant of royal privilege to a formal and eventually widespread system of law should in principle have enhanced composers' income from publication. The evidence from our quantitative comparison of honoraria received by Beethoven, with no copyright law in his territory, and Robert Schumann, benefiting from nearly universal European copyright, provides at best questionable support for the hypothesis that copyright fundamentally changed composers' fortunes. From the qualitative evidence on Giuseppe Verdi, who was the first important composer to experience the new Italian copyright regime and devise strategies to derive maximum advantage, it is clear that copyright could make a substantial difference. In the case of Verdi, greater remuneration through full exploitation of the copyright system led perceptibly to a lessening of composing effort."
Scherer, F.M. (2004), Quarter Notes and Bank Notes. The Economics of Music Composition in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Princeton University Press
Non-scarcity
There is an argument that copyright is invalid because, unlike physical property, intellectual property is not scarce and is, they claim, a legal fiction created by the state. That is, infringing on copyright, unlike theft, does not deprive the victim of the original item, and so enforcement of copyright law constitutes aggression on the part of the state.
Kinsella, Stephan Against Intellectual Property (2008) Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Historical Comparison
It is entirely unclear that copyright laws are economically useful, even for the majority of authors. Thus Höffner compared the economic effects copyright law had on authors and publishing in the United Kingdom to those in Germany in the first part of the nineteenth century when in Germany such laws had not been instituted, and found that more books were printed and read in Germany where authors, in general, also made more money.
Eckhard Höffner. "Copyright and structure of authors’ earnings". Retrieved February 11, 2012.
Information Technology Arguments
Web 2.0
- One of the founders of Piratbyrån Rasmus Fleischer argues that copyright law simply seems unable to cope with the Internet, and hence is obsolete. He argues that the Internet, and particularly Web 2.0 have brought about the uncertain status of the very idea of "stealing" itself.
- He argues that in an attempt to rein in Web 2.0, copyright law in the 21st century is increasingly concerned with criminalizing entire technologies, leading to recent attacks on different kinds of search engines, solely because they provide links to files which may be copyrighted.
- Fleischer points out that Google, while still largely uncontested, operates in a gray zone of copyright (e.g. the business model of Google Books is to display millions of pages of copyrighted and uncopyrighted books as part of a business plan drawing its revenue from advertising).
- In contrast, others have pointed out that Google Books blocks-out large sections of those same books, which motivates purchases, and supports the legitimate interests of rightsholders.
- Fleischer's central argument is that copyright has become obsolete with regards to the Internet, that the cost of trying to enforce it is unreasonable, and that instead business models need to adapt to the reality of the darknet. Fleischer, Rasmus (June 2008). "The Future of Copyright". CATO Unbound.
Cultural Arguments
Freedom of Knowlege
- Groups such as Hipatia advance anti-copyright arguments in the name of "freedom of knowledge" and argue that knowledge should be "shared in solidarity". "Second Manifesto". Hipatia. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
- Such groups may perceive "freedom of knowledge" as a right, and/or as fundamental in realising the right to education, which is an internationally recognized human right, as well as the right to a free culture and the right to free communication.
- They argue that current copyright law hinders the realization of these rights in today's knowledge societies relying on new technological means of communication.
- Such groups see copyright law as preventing or slowing human progress. They argue that the current copyright system needs to be brought into line with reality and the needs of society.
- Hipatia argues that this would "provide the ethical principles which allow the individual to spread his/her knowledge, to help him/herself, to help his/her community and the whole world, with the aim of making society ever more free, more equal, more sustainable, and with greater solidarity."
- Lawrence Liang, founder of the Alternative Law Forum, argues that current copyright is based on a too narrow definition of "author", which is assumed to be clear and undisputed. Liang observes that the concept of "the author" is assumed to make universal sense across cultures and across time. Instead, Liang argues that the notion of the author as a unique and transcendent being, possessing originality of spirit, was constructed in Europe after the industrial revolution, to distinguish the personality of the author from the expanding realm of mass-produced goods. Hence works created by "authors" were deemed original, and merges with the doctrine of property prevalent at the time.
- Liang argues that the concept of "author" is tied to the notion of copyright and emerged to define a new social relationship - the way society perceives the ownership of knowledge. The concept of "author" thus naturalised a particular process of knowledge production where the emphasis on individual contribution and individual ownership takes precedence over the concept of "community knowledge". Relying on the concept of the author, copyright is based on the assumption that without an intellectual property rights regime, authors would have no incentive to further create, and that artists cannot produce new works without an economic incentive.
- Liang challenges this logic, arguing that "many authors who have little hope of ever finding a market for their publications, and whose copyright is, as a result, virtually worthless, have in the past, and even in the present, continued to write." Liang points out that people produce works purely for personal satisfaction, or even for respect and recognition from peers. Liang argues that the 19th Century saw the prolific authorship of literary works in the absence of meaningful copyright that benefited the author. In fact, Liang argues, copyright protection usually benefited the publisher, and rarely the author.
- Liang, Lawrence (February 2005). "Copyright/Copyleft: Myths About Copyright". Infochangeindia.org.
Criticism of Anti Copyright
- Copyright proponents such as Sumner M. Redstone of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, majority owner of CBS Corporation, Viacom, MTV Networks, and BET,
argue that copyright drives the economy by compelling creativity, and
is a fundamental right for both creators and consumers. He argued that
all proposed alternatives to copyright protection do not allow for
viable business models, as content creators would not have incentive to produce their products if they cannot be guaranteed payment. "Propose
to a dairy farmer that the milk he sells become a free commodity
available to all, and he will stop cultivating cows. Why buy the cow,
when consumers can get the milk for free?'"
"Copyright is Even More Right in the Digital Age". pff.org. January 2011. - Richard Verrier, editor at Los Angeles Times who covers labor and production issues in Hollywood, wrote in an article that piracy undermined independent filmmakers, who, unlike larger studios, would not be able to afford revenue loss. Independent filmmaker Greg Carter described it as; "It feels like someone is walking into your house and stealing your furniture... The big studios can absorb it, but guys like me, we're not millionaires. We're fighting like crazy for every dollar, every nickel, every penny just to survive in this marketplace." Verrier, Richard (September 2010). "Independent filmmakers feel the squeeze of piracy". Los Angeles Times.
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