Lessig 03/04/2013

In chapter seven Lessig talks about how Jon Else tried to get permission to use a four second click of the Simpsons in the corner of a scene. He goes on to explain that Else just wanted to make sure that he was in the ok to use the click so he first called the creator. Then the Creator said yes, but best to talk to Gracie Films to be extra safe. Then Else called Gracie Films who said he could use the clip, but needed to talk to the parent company Fox to completely make sure. Once Else made the call Fox said no and that it would cost around $10,000 to use the 4-5 second click that was in the corner. After reading about this I was astonished because it seemed so outrageous that a 4-5 second clip that is only visible in the corner of a scene  would come with such a price tag. Else also thought that Fox was being unreasonable and did some law research to see if he fully understood all the details. Later he found out that he may have been able to use the clip and lable it under fair use. However, he was then told that Fox would fight it and that it would eventually come down to who has more money and a bigger legal department. I knew that some places can charge vast amounts of money to use something that is copyrighted. I never truly thought that people would be so unreasonable. Due to all my current works being for school and not for profit or commercial use that everything I make falls under the fair use law. However, I did not think that it would be so hard a tiny bit of something that was copyrighted in my work. This reading brought a new light to me about how terrible copyright can be. Lessig even states that "This practice shows just how far the law has come from its
eighteenth-century roots. The law was born as a shield to protect publishers’ profits against the unfair competition of a pirate. It has matured into a sword that interferes with any use, transformative or not." I fully agree with what he states because copyright has gone from a shield to a sword. It will be very interesting once I enter the real world and need to make sure I am not violating any copyright laws.