Copyright is history

What if this whole copyright discussion becomes obsolete? It looks like a long way to find out what is stolen and what is not. What if we live in a world where abundance is the basic thought of where we share from? On the one hand we shout ‘share share’ on the other hand we say ‘don’t steal’. To me this whole copyright struggle looks like something that is at the end of it’s life. I am not implying that it is over now, so to all photographers and artists on the internet: think about it. What if you only put on the internet what you really want to share, from a feeling of abundance, nothing more. Rethink the share model as: everything I put on the internet is for everybody, for the global community. Just as a practice, not as a must. How would that feel?

What differs inspiration from plagiarism?

“Originality has always been a questionable phenomenon. What differs inspiration from plagiarism? Especially in the digital age where everything is essentially already a representation, a copy without an original. Whether it’s samples in music or the digital readymades used by game designers; open-source is the trend now. Defining everything as property only leads to more laws and security. Which in turn generate more laws and security as a self-reinforcing mechanism. With finally a minimized freedom, whether expressive or physical. Copyright is history.” (Roberto Voorbij in Overdose.am )

Personally I have been practicing the share — economy for the past 2 years in my work. As a webdesigner I have given websites away for ‘free’ from the idea of abundance. Still under a barter ‘agreement’ but without a contract, without money etc. Based on the ideal ‘I give my talents to you, you give your talents to me’. A barter is just a step towards a society where everything is free, but it’s work in progress.

So again, my challenge for every creative artist is: before you put something on the web, what are your inner intentions? What do you want to gain? Are you willing to share it with the world and are you able to let go? If you have a commercial purpose, what do you use to monetize and protect your work? What if copyright discussions are something of the past?

PS the illustration for this post was found with the Creative Commons search engine

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Originally published at 3tags.org.