This week we take a look at the inner-workings of copyright laws and how they affect creativity.  We watched a documentary explaining how even though copyright is a great thing for inventors, it hinders innovators.  We discuss a few key points below that were raised in the documentary:

1) Culture always builds on the past
Similar to the phrase, “History repeats itself,” history builds on itself.  If we look back on the past, we would never be able to grow as a community.  That being said, culture also needs to advance and grow based off of the past.

2) The past always tries to control the future,
While we can learn a lot from history and learn from our mistakes, the past will dictate how we live our lives in the future.

3) Our future is becoming less free,
With so many laws and restrictions, humans cannot live their lives to the fullest.  In relation to copyright, there are so many copyright laws that creativity is limited.  You cannot a clip of music, and rearrange the notes to make it into a new piece.  However, that would have been possible to do just a decade ago.

4) To build free societies, you must limit the control of the past.
Basically, to enjoy creative freedom, you must limit the reminder of history.  While it is important to remember the past, it is crucial to “let loose” and experiment with the future.

This thesis has a very tight connection to copyright.  We can be creative in our every day lives by learning from our past experiences and how things work, but we cannot let the past control our future.  If the past holds us back, we won’t be able to explore the new world and innovate and invent.

The film offered many interesting anecdotes relating to copyright.  My favorite was when someone explained that Disney infringed on copyright ideas to create some of their most well-known characters.  However, Disney has sued people for using Disney’s famous designs and drawings.  It is because of Disney that copyright laws now state that copyright is in effect for the creator’s entire life plus seventy years.  It was also explained that a company in Asia opened a theme park based on Disney’s parks.  Disney sued and now that theme park is out of business.