Free Culture Chapter 7: Recorders

Free Culture
Chapter 7: Recorders

In chapter 7 of the book Free Culture, Lessig describes that the real purpose of creating law for copyrights was to protect publisher’s profits against the unfair competition of a pirate. But today the law is used for any use, transformative or not.

Jon Else a film maker, best known for his documentaries, worked on a documentary about Wagner’s Ring Cycle in 1990. The focus was stagehands at the San Francisco Opera. During one of the performances, Else was shooting some stagehands playing checkers and in one corner of the room was a television set playing The Simpsons. Else felt that a four-and-a-half second touch of cartoon on a tiny television set captures the flavor of what was special about the scene. The Simpsons was copyrighted and to use a copyrighted material, permission is required from the copyright owner unless “fair use” or some other privilege applies. Else attempted to clear the rights for those few seconds on The Simpsons, so he got permission from Simpsons creator Matt Groening’s and Gracie Films, the company that produces the program. When Else tried to get permission from Gracie’s parent company Fox, they wanted ten thousand dollars as a licensing fee for this 4.5 seconds of unsolicited Simpsons which was in the corner of the shot.

Else didn't have the money to buy the right to replay what was playing on the television backstage at the San Francisco Opera. So at the very last minute before the film was to be released, he digitally replaced the shot with a clip from another film that he had worked on. But Else was certain that there was a mistake. So he spoke to one of the person in Stanford Law School, who confirmed that the usage of Simpsons was clearly fair use. According to law, fair use does not require the permission of anyone.

Therefore as per the author, the theory supports free culture and insulates against a permission culture. But in practice, fair use functions very differently. The law was created for the right sense, but in practice the purpose for the law is crushed.

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