So, I got an email today from YouTube about copyright infringement on a Plant and Page video I had on my channel. They asked me to either take it down or swap out the sound. (WTF?) Yeah, they had blocked out the sound. I took it down along with the other Plant and Page video I had up. Both were from concert footage. (Why should I have to put up with getting another email of a similar ilk?)
It didn’t kill me to do so. Afterall, both of those were put up as early experiments in getting the best quality for a video upload. They got a lot of comments. And really… I could do without those because many of them were flames and arguments over which version of the song was supreme. Give me a break! Anyway… it’s done… it’s over.
OK… here is the editorial. It is common knowledge that Led Zeppelin can be real bastards about copyrights of their work. (Or at least whoever handles their catalog.) What gets me is that a huge amount of their work was lifted from poor Delta Blues musicians without the benefit of paying for the rights in the first place. (See the irony I’m getting at here?) It is not my intent to dump on Led Zep… I still love their work and reinterpretations of music that existed before they were a glimmer in their parents’ eyes.
It may be strange (for me as a playwright) but over the last few years the copyright laws have been on my mind. There is something especially wonky in the very idea of “owning” intellectual property. Really, let me assure you nothing you have thought up is particularly original… it has been thought up millions of times before spanning the ages. Shakespeare, Mozart, Michelangelo… none of them had to deal with copyrights… yet their work survives today. On top of that, they made a healthy living during their lifetimes with it… fucked-up lifestyles not withstanding. Ideas are great to have… but it’s what you do with them that determines if you rise with the cream or languish in obscurity with the rest of the sludge at the bottom of the bowl. Yeah, yeah… I’ll admit there are a few hidden gems down there. I’ll get to that later.
The laws as they exist now are just over a hundred years old… and becoming less and less useful in the 21st century. I will go so far to say that they are actually limiting… perhaps even Orwellian. Look, I am all about people in the arts making a living. Though, as I have observed… whether the copyright laws exist or not there are always going to be a few “haves” a larger majority of “have-nots”. If we take the recording industry as an example… the copyright laws in most cases benefit the “corporation” in the majority of the business more than they do the artists. There are reams of examples of “successful musicians” that got royally screwed by the system.
Do I know or have a suggestion as to what the great resolve should be? No. And I’m sure it is a debatable subject for eons. It’s just that I think there is an inherent dishonesty perpetuated by the copyright laws as they exist today. Once again… not to bag on the members of Led Zep but haven’t you guys already made enough moolah on your product to last several lifetimes? That is just one example. As for the rest of us who are in the ARTS… all I can say is… GET THE FUCK OUT OF THAT VICTIM MODE THAT YOU’VE BEEN LIVING!
“But Lecram, you’re an artist… you should understand that I need the time and space to create. I can’t bother myself with all that yucky business stuff. It’s so… so damn inconvenient.”
“Then I say to you… get out of doing what you claim to do because you are only doing half of what you should be. Besides, that pretentious attitude will only guarantee obscurity. If it is your life then it should feed you and provide you shelter as well. If it doesn’t… I’m afraid to inform you that it is just a wanker hobby. And please don’t call me an artist to butter me up… I have never claimed to be one.”
Success in any craft is a combination of talent, work, luck and effective marketing. I am suggesting that perhaps the road to perpetuating more honesty all around begins with ourselves and how we approach what we do. This includes the acceptance that what we create is a product that people either buy or not.