Re: Copyright - Fashion's take - from the talks at TED

From: "Marguerita" 
> Greetings,
> 
> I normally skip over the discussion/arguments about copyright on the groups & lists I read, but as a lover of the TED talks, I had to watch and see what this talk would focus on.
> 
> I was floored.  I am re-thinking this issue and thought I'd share the clip.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL2FOrx41N0
> 
> Marguerita McManus
> co-author of Crazy Shortcut Quilts Book
> http://www.crazyshortcutquilts.com/
> My Quilting Videos - http://tinyurl.com/r6xxp4

Marguerita,

Be very careful in your rethinking. It was clear before the half-way point that this was a propaganda piece; and as you know it was put out by Creative Commons, which seems to have forgotten that it is entirely a sub-set of copyright. It is easy to renounce their own copyright for those who wish to cease to exercise it; but they seem to need everyone to do it with them, shy things!

There are two other points from the actual presentation. The presenter and writer of the presentation clearly do not understand Open Source, and I suggest a careful reading of open source terms to understand the conditions attached.  Secondly, there was a strange disconnection of the *rules* of games from the games themselves. And I urge you to NOT bring out a copy of Monopoly [the game shown] as that will quickly show it is protected under IP law.

As for the rag trade, it is - as was clearly admitted - a great recycler of designs. And it has been doing that for centuries. It is not even so much that there is the copyright v utitlitarian argument, as the reality that there is hardly any variation of garment that has not been used repeatedly. It would be hard to find an idea that does fulfill the requirements for copyright.

And the turnover argument is also specious. Clothing is a necessity, and like all necessities it has to be bought, and so the money involved is large. The figure also includes all the items that have hardly changed fashion from decade to decade - like men's suits, underwear and so on. The 'fashionable' is a tiny part of that whole industry, and mass production of designs are, indeed, utilitarian versions of cat-walk extremes.

Even between the more easily recognisable 'creative areas' there are major differences i nthe need and application of copyright, and in the industrial variations and business models. And within each one there are sub-models and niche variations. 

While there is certainly a case for discussing copyright and other IP [and that is done continuously at one level by IPO], distortion of information helps no one. A pity; I thought the video was moving into some useful points at first.

Joseph 


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