Megan writes:

Reviewed by Andrew F.

In the introduction to this comic book—or graphic creative non-fiction if you prefer—Cory Doctorow explains that: “Copyright, a system that is meant to promote creativity, has been hijacked by a few industrial players and perverted. Today, copyright is as likely to suppress new creativity as it is to protect it.” Bound By Law – Tales From The Public Domain, is written by Keith Aoki, James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins who are academics involved in various aspects of copyright and public domain. Aoki is a Professor of Law at the University of Oregon, Jenkins is Director of Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, and Boyle is a Professor of Law at Duke Law School. Boyle and Jenkins wrote the text and Aoki drew the pictures.

The story is about a documentary maker, Akiko, and a film that captures a day in the life of New York. Two lawyers take her on a surreal crash course in copyright law and try to explain its advantages and dilemmas. This is a real life example of the ways that other's creative rights can restrict the artists, as well as the possibility of abuse of those rights to shut down new work.

At about seventy-pages, Bound by Law is easy to read quite quickly, but the subject matter is perhaps surprisingly complex. As Doctorow explains in his introduction:

This is a sensible book about a ridiculous subject. It's an example of the principle it illustrates: that taking from the culture around us to make new things is what culture is all about, it's what culture is for. Culture is that which we use to communicate.

Of course, the subject matter is US copyright law and the ideas of public domain, fair use and the Creative Commons project, but it is quite readily applicable in a general sense to the Australian creative landscape and the principles are the same if some of the legal nuances differ.

The comic format works, but the reader must be in the mood for something of an academic discourse of the subject. Particularly delightful is the cramming full of almost every panel with easily recognisable copyrighted cultural references such as an image of Mickey Mouse, a reference to Woodstock or McDonalds, myriad cartoon and film figures and literary characters, all used without fees under the fair use protections to make the point.

This is a tale of danger and hope for creative types. There are spooky stories of license holders, usually megacorporations such as Fox and EMI, making extortionate demands on artists and documentary makers for miniscule perceived breaches. But the authors also give examples of real cases where judges upheld the creator's right to make commentary or analysis. In the 'afterword', 'Why Three Stodgy Academics Wrote a Comic Book', Boyle summarises their views, making the point that whilst they support the aims and reality of copyright, they question whether the law has swung too far in favour of the entrenched and against the new. As he puts it:

One of the under-appreciated tragedies of the permissions culture is that many young artists only experience copyright as an impediment, a source of incomprehensible demands for payment, letters demanding cease-and-desist, and legal transaction costs. Technology allows them to mix, to combine, to create collages. They see the law as merely an obstacle. This is a shame because copyright can be a valuable tool for artists and creators of all kinds—even for many of those who are trying to share their work without charge (69).

Sadly the message still comes through that if there is any chance of offending the big players, the artist better get a lawyer, son, better get a real good one. One example is the celebrated documentary Tarnation, which screened at Cannes but, famously, was made digitally for only $218. Apparently the film "ended up costing over $400,000, most of which went to clearing rights" (21).


Bound By Law - Tales From The Public Domain
(2008)

by Keith Aoki, James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins
Duke University Press
ISBN 9780822344186
73pp US$8.95

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