I just got a copyright claim against a video I posted on youtube 10 years ago.
The video is a film by Georges Melies that was shot in the 1890s.
Someone is attempting to claim copyright over a film that is 130 years old, who's director died 86 years ago.
Now 1) I don't give a shit about this clip on youtube. 2) The person who made this claim is clearly in the wrong. 3) I can't be the only one that they have targeted illegally. 4) Youtube is a problem.
As an archivist, let me say clearly:
Modern copyright law is actively harmful to the preservation and study of our culture.
It harms artists by giving undue power to publishers. It harms artists by limiting remixes. It harms preservation and research efforts.
It's broken. It's bad. It should be massively reformed.
@ajroach42 reformed? Abolished more like.
The only purpose of copyright as a legal concept is to turn activities previously labeled "plagiarism" into blameless lawful activities when carried out by a company.
"Work for hire" laws mean that anything you write is by default owned and copyrighted by your employer, and they pay you at most once for it. And as soon as a company asserts copyright of your work, they can remix/resell your work and use it to extract perpetual profit without giving anything back to you, not even attribution is required. It's inherently asymmetric because the whole purpose is extraction
Andrew (Television Executive)
sleepfreeparent
Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC