Vatican Criticizes Rich Countries’ “Excessive Zeal” for Copyright Enforcement
Delegation of the Holy See tells gathering of the World Intellectual Property Organization that although it affirms the right of authors to be recognized and rewarded for their work, it’s important to remember that the whole purpose of intellectual property protection is the “promotion of literary, scientific or artistic production and, generally, of inventive activity for the sake of the ‘common good.’”
As copyright holdings become the bedrock of profits for an array of business interests, multinational corporations like those in the movie and music industry in particular, there’s been an increasing push to protect them at all costs, even to the detriment of society and culture.
The Vatican, like arguably a majority of the rest of the world, hasn’t taken these developments lightly. Late last month a Delegation of the Holy See told a gathering at the 48th World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly that Pope Benedict is troubled by the “excessive zeal” with which rich countries have been protecting their intellectual property rights, especially when it comes to health care in developing countries.
“The raison d’être of the protection system of intellectual property is the promotion of literary, scientific or artistic production and, generally, of inventive activity for the sake of the ‘common good,’ said the delegation. “Thus protection officially attests the right of the author or inventor to recognition of the ownership of his work and to a degree of economic reward. At the same time it serves the cultural and material progress of society as a whole.”
Exactly. Music, movies, and other copyrighted material doesn’t exist in a vacuum. After it’s released it becomes part of the cultural fabric of society, and then owned by the artist in name only. In some cases an artist’s work has shaped the consciousness of an entire country, generation, or those artists that follow, and it’s hardly proper to protect their work in a way that inhibits this flow.
“According to article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ‘Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author,” added the delegation. “In the end, intellectual property protection recognizes the dignity of man and his work that becomes an expression of, and a contribution to, the growth of the individual personality and to the common good.”
Lest we forget, musicians have been around as long as humans have, but recorded music is a relatively new invention.
Moreover, copyrighted material shouldn’t be an inanimate piece of real estate that is handed down from generation to generation. Current copyright law allows for copyright protection for 70 years after the artist’s death. However, if the work was “made for hire,” a new tactic employed by the RIAA that claims artists were on the company payroll, the duration of protection is 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.
“On the part of rich countries there is excessive zeal for protecting knowledge through an unduly rigid assertion of the right to intellectual property, especially in the field of health care,” Pope Benedict says in an Encyclical Letter quoted by the delegation.
With a number of countries already using copyright infringement accusations to disconnect people from the Internet, and others soon to follow, I can think of nothing more “excessive” than the “zeal” with which societies are deciding that the best way to protect artists is to remove their fans from the online community.
Stay tuned.
jared@zeropaid.com
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