Wired Interview with Copyright Comic Authors

An anonymous reader writes "Wired has an interesting interview with the authors of a recent book about comics, fair use and the permissions culture. There is also a gallery of some of the most interesting pages from the comic. According to the interview, their next project is going to be on the history of musical borrowing and the way law has affected it. 'Picture a conversation between Bach, Robert Johnson and John Lennon, in comic book form.' Now *that* would be 'Strange Fruit,' indeed."

Strange Comparison

[Doc Ruby]

"'Picture a conversation between Bach, Robert Johnson and John Lennon, in comic book form.' Now *that* would be 'Strange Fruit,' indeed."

I doubt that Bach and Lennon would lynch Johnson, though lynching Black Americans is what "Strange Fruit" is about [pbs.org].

Strange Fruit

[Quirk]

For those who don't know..." "Strange Fruit" [wikipedia.org]is a song most famously performed by Billie Holiday that condemns American racism, particularly the practice of lynching and burning African Americans that was prevalent in the South at the time when it was written.

Holiday's phrasing was so unique that every song is a treat, but 'Strange Fruit' was, perhaps, the song for which she is best known.

Irony

[payndz]

I kind of like the irony that the central character in the strip - Akiko - looks an awful lot like Hopey from Jaime Hernandez's 'Love & Rockets'. Is this a job for Captain Copyright?

The comic does make a good point, though. The copyright laws (worldwide, not just in the US) are seriously fucked up if corporations are demanding thousands of dollars just because somebody's movie-theme ringtone can be heard in the background of a documentary.

Re:Sure Beats...

[mboos]

Not so... the site is from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, which is an organization of Canadian writers and publishers, not the government.

So...

[Kamineko]

Is it illegal for Slashdot to mention the names of the authors or the title of the book?

The book is called 'Bound By Law? Tales From the Public Domain', and it is co-written and produced by Keith Aoki, James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins. The art is by Aoki.

To Be Fair And Balanced...

[leoxx]

You should publish a link to Captain Copyright! [captaincopyright.ca] Of course, you definitely don't want to link to the blog of the guy who exposed the various copyright infringements that Captain Copyright was partaking in [sooke.bc.ca], or the EFF's DRM counter force: The Corruptables [eff.org]!

Re:Even most artists don't benefit from copyright

[Anonymous Coward]

Often the original author's name would be be removed entirely, or abridged to the point where the original meaning was ruined.

Check out the (C) Copyright liner on a major label CD, it doesn't say (C) Copyight Artist/Band but (C) Copyright Label because they don't own their own songs anymore.

The laws today continue to protect creators from seeing their works misapproriated-- and it's pretty much the only power a creator has to protect himself.

That power is meaningless because it can be ripped off from the authors through market power: You either cede it to the publisher or you won't get published.
Maybe we need a different sort of law, one that is more useful for honoring the artist's attribution and the work's commercial exploitation than the current one which is more useful at sueing 12-year olds.