Oh no you didn't

My brother-in-law sent me the link to a May 20th Op-Ed piece in the New York Times by Mark Helprin entitled "A Great Idea Lives Forever. Shouldn't its Copyright?". I think Ed only sent it so he could stand back and watch my brain explode, the same way a kid might light an illegal firework imported from Mexico.

(Note: Prepare yourself for a rant. This is what I wrote my dissertation on, so I'm slightly impassioned.)

Helprin is whining because he wants the copyright term to be extended, again, some more. He thinks that if he were to write the Great American Novel (which I hope he never does, because I'm pretty sure I would hate that book), then only holding the rights to that novel for the rest of his life + 70 additional years (the current copyright term in the USA) is just not even enough. Because what if his poor great-grandson can't buy a boat for his 13th birthday once all those nasty public domain people rob his posterity blind?

My answer to that, of course, would be to tell the g-grandson to write his OWN Great American Novel and stop this About a Boy nonsense. Also to get a job. And tuck in his shirt. And comb his freaking hair for gosh sakes.

The original copyright term set up in this country was 14 years. The Founding Fathers understood that no one can own an idea. But since it does take work to develop ideas and put them into accessible formats and publish them, the copyright term was established. It was meant to provide incentive & compensation for creators to share their ideas, with the understanding that their ideas (and the form in which they shared them with the world) would eventually be made part of the public domain and others could then build upon them. That way everyone wins. And if creators & authors didn't want to share, then that was just fine--they could just Keep It To Themselves and Never Tell Anyone Their Fabulous Great Idea. And they could stay home and pet their idea alone in their room and murmur “My Precious” to it.

Helprin is trying to say that a novel or song or play should be treated the same way as a house or boat and should stay within the original builder's possession forever and ever, worlds without end. But songs and novels and plays aren't like houses or boats. They're not created for the private use of just one family. They don't really begin to exist as great works until they're sent out into the world to be seen and read and studied and appreciated. You can't take away a creative work from someone by using it.

And anyway, the big power behind the push for extended and ridiculously strong copyright is not coming from the descendants of dead writers of the Great American Novel. It’s coming from corporations like Disney who don't want to lose control of their characters—characters which, for the most part, existed in the public domain before Disney adapted them. So on that thought, here is a brilliant, brilliant video about copyright, fair use, and Disney. Don’t be put off by the length, because the last minute is mostly credits.

ps. Since writing the above, I discovered that Mr. Lawrence Lessig His Own Self has responded to Helprin's article in the form of a wiki ("Against Perpetual Copyright") so that other people can contribute their comments, which, seriously? Is awesome. Glad Lawrence and I are on the same page here. ;-)