Alchemical Musings

I had a fun idea for a new Free Culture campaign last spring, but I haven’t gotten around to blogging about it until now.

LET MY CULTURE GO!

• Walt Disney: Let my cartoons go!
• Jack Valenti: Let my music go!
• Rupert Murdoch: Let my news go!
• Steve Jobs: Let my iPhone go!
• Jeff Bezos: Let my Kindle go!
• etc, etc.

I know it would be more consistent to substitute ‘our’ for ‘my’, but I really want to evoke the biblical/mythological imagery around freedom and liberation, while simultaneously calling these CEOs out for the pharoahs/slavemasters that they are (we used to have another term for 360 deals…). The campaign simultaneously inverts the framing of copying as piracy, and takes up the mantle of liberators.

As Nina Paley rigorously demonstrates, there are many parallels between the struggles against Human Property and Intellectual Property. Just as we once thought it was morally acceptable to own humans, can we imagine a future where the ownership of ideas is viewed with similar disgust and incredulity? What are the best ways to remind people that Copying is Not Theft?

Anyway, the signal to noise ratio is quite high, and it will definitely
fit on bumper stickers and T-Shirts…

Any graphic designers want to donate some skillz?

Filed by jonah at 1:01 am under ethics,fire,freeculture
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