Thursday, January 12, 2006

Against the Law

"Hey, mister sketch it man, will you draw me a Calvin peeing on Osama Bin Laden?"

No.

"If you're such a good artist then you ought to be able to draw Homer Simpson. Draw me a Homer."

No.

"Can you put a big swoosh on my head and a word bubble where I say, 'Just do it.'?"

No.

While all of these are interesting artistic challenges, I can't and won't do them. Why? Because of certain non-person entities called corporations that have convinced the powers that be that it's a good idea to restrict the flow of creativity with a little thing called the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Actually, a lot of the restrictions regarding copyright were put in place in the US Copyright Act of 1976.

Either way, as an artist, I am boxed in as to what I can draw and post online. What about "fair use?" Well, we can cross that bridge when we get to it. Those sorts of things must be decided on a case by case basis.

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