By Cody Pallo
I attempted to Trademark an Artist name in 2021. The Trademark office told me that, in order to do so, I had to sell physical media. I thought that was unusual in this day and age, I’ve sold audio online. Yet, they are absolutely in the know on this. It’s very hard to fake physical things.
My conclusion, after hearing this, is that this should apply to digital media copyright laws as well. People and companies should not be able to copyright non-physical things. Creatives sometimes feel rushed, they feel they just need to get their work seen online and then the work is their’s; that’s not very realistic. If we really had the only “Copy” rights to a work, why can we copy anything we please online. Duplication should be more micromanaged at the very least. Especially, if we are to continue to own digital things. Realistically, all Digital Media should be a variation on a patent. In this scenario, a files code should have presentation variations approximated in accordance with the law and then banned from all other network computer based reproductions, unless specified by the author. This should be mandated in the OS.
Digital media is very much not just a file, there are many components that make it function. How else can we own copy protection on an infinitely reproducible configuration of incomprehensible on and off switches which change depending on what physical machine is being used and even by who uses it. Currently publishing digital media online and that’s it, is like throwing our work into a a box we desperately need to step out of. “Radical Acceptance.” This is precisely the attitude we should adopt when we choose to publish solely in digital form without protections today and really that’s asking a lot of creatives who already get so little monetary compensation to begin with.
Augmented Reality (AR) will, without a doubt, change copyright, how can we make progress otherwise? Always on, holographic glasses, perpetually capture everything in view. Who will own the Digital media related to live, ubiquitous, 3D capture and analysis of the entire world, not you, not our communities? Not to mention it’s a blatant invasion of our privacy. Artificial Intelligence may “block” from the public somethings of concern, the companies behind the tech will certainly see everything in some shape or form and gain a competitive advantage not just with other corporations but with the consumer too. Should any company really have the ability to compete with our decision making process so aggressively? With AR the potentiality for this is many times over.
With this in mind, AR may very well be a waste of time for society, not a computing sea change as we might believe. Many are fighting for laws that mandate change, we shall not continue to allow unfettered access to any feature tech companies wish to implement, I tend to agree. These companies seem to be following every dystopian world trope in the book. Why we allow for this isn’t unheard of. Don’t share work online if you want to “own” it. Print it, save it, sell it, do whatever you please with your creations in the real world.