Call, response, create!
Tue, 22 Apr 2008
Call-and-response is an African tradition of democratic communication and participation. It translates into all areas of culture and is international in its spread. Musicians interpret it as a series of “phrases” – usually four bars - played and exchanged between musicians who comment, complement or interpret each others phrases. Call-and-response is transformative. It allows any number of people to be influenced by the creativity and ideas of others, adapt the outcome and call it their own.
Transformation is also one of the four analysis factors used to determine “fair use” in US copyright law. Is my response to your call significantly transformative – does it add something new – so it becomes original? Or is it derivative? That is the distinction “fair use” law decides. But since codified in 1989, “fair use” law is used increasingly by the goliaths of creativity as a club to beat down rising – or rival - talent. The most recent case is J K Rowling and Warner Brothers Entertainment vs Steven Vander Ark and RDR Books. Vander Ark’s lexicon of the Harry Potter series is a transformative vade mecum. Christopher Caldwell writing in the Financial Times called it “a leviathan effort of research, criticism and interpretation.” Rowling and Warner Brothers think otherwise. Marina Hyde wonders how Rowling can claim her work is debased by Vander Ark when she endorses “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” theme park?
Prevention of “fair use” snowballs into other areas. Nicolai Ouroussoff, Architectural critic for The New York Times reports on the shift from open, public debate regarding major US capital build projects to a system where more and more power is ceded by government to big developers. Architects are “asked” to sign confidentiality agreements. Pre-build image release is restricted and cursory. The result? What should be an open public review process is grossly hindered. The call-and-response of healthy democratic discourse is denied.
Similar to countries that decide you are an organ donor unless you specifically opt out while alive, copyright is the default for any newly authored US work. But opt out is possible through a Creative Commons licence. There are several licences to choose. This website uses “Attribution (by)” – the most open of the available licences – for photographs (via Flickr) and written content. It’s a variation on a common marketing ploy “give to get”. Offer the public something “free” and they will return to buy. Or call it karma. What goes around comes around. Any way you choose to look at it, open source is the way forward. Creative Commons works to create a balance between extremes. Neither totalitarian creative control nor anarchy, but a system that encourages creativity, innovation, sharing and a return to a democratic system of call-and-response.
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