Copyleft, Copyright… Create Freely

My son was always enthusiastic about drawing and painting. He would draw characters from his favourite TV shows and create his own art on paper and on his iPad. He was quite prolific and I had folders full of his art from age two. I saved every scrap of paper that he scribbled on. And then last Spring (2020), I saw him going through the folders and tearing up his art. He was critical of his work, but in my eyes every scribble I have saved was a masterpiece that the world deserved to experience one day. I told him that the only way to improve was to practice and I bought him a sketchbook and waited for it to be filled up with his art. He was excited. We set up an instagram account to post his drawings. He came up with the name, Love What You Art @lovewhatyouart, because we had arrived at the understanding that art is in the eye of the beholder. He quickly produced five drawings, which I posted. And then I waited for more. We were on lockdown because of the Pandemic, we had a lot of time on our hands, he would spend the Summer in virtual art classes and hopefully reawaken his interest in art. The sketchbook would be full by the end of Summer and I would have to buy him another one. Well, that didn’t happen. That sketchbook remained closed until he went back to in-person school this year.

All of a sudden, without prompting, he started drawing again. He would come back from school with drawings that he was excited to show me. He had a friend who also liked to draw, so they challenged and supported each other as they practised and improved their skills. Yes! Hooray! Drawing again. And once again, the first set of drawings were posted on his instagram account. But if you visit the account you’ll find that we’re once again at a standstill. There have been no new postings, and it’s not because he hasn’t been drawing.

Copyright is the Issue and It’s My Fault

I don’t remember exactly when it was, but I do recall when he was still in virtual school, that I heard a discussion about copyright in one of his classes. It didn’t seem like such a big deal but I remember being impressed that elementary school students were learning about copyright infringement.

Well, fast forward to our current situation and I am lost for words. The reason his @lovewhatyouart hasn’t been updated is because of copyright. Yes, the young man is afraid of getting in trouble for copyright infringement. Our conversations around publicly sharing his art are many versions of this:

Me: That’s so lovely, can I post this one?

Him: No, you can’t.

Me: But why not? It’s really good. Your art is improving. And all your Aunties that I got to follow your account are waiting to see new stuff from you.

Him: Well, I don’t want to get into trouble for copyright infringement.

Me: But you won’t…trust me.

Him: Nope. You’re going to get me in trouble.

Me: You won’t get in trouble. You are allowed to use other people’s work for inspiration. And when you’ve taken one of these online classes, they expect that you will draw what they have taught you to draw, so you can share it.

I have tried but I can’t convince him that he won’t get in trouble if he shares his art publicly. Apparently, I have caused this fear! I don’t remember having a conversation with him about copyright, but whatever conversation he has overheard (or that I might have had with him as he claims) has brought us to this place. Sure, copyright is important to know, people pay me to give them advice about copyright, but my son is nine years old. I want him to create freely, without worrying about perfection or copyright. But, alas! Here we are and it seems, sadly, that I am to blame.

Copyleft

I am reminded of an article titled, How Copyright Kills Creativity, written in 2009 by my friend Ayo Kusamotu for my Pocket Lawyer Column in the Sunday Punch. Ayo is a big time commercial lawyer these days, but there was a time when he was a staunch advocate for Copyleft and the Creative Commons (CC) platform, and I listened to him with a little bit of the side-eye. Now here I am all these years later with my son, and all I can think of is this article by Ayo. The article started with a quote by the late French poet Comte de Lautréamont saying, “Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. It closely grasps an author’s sentence, uses his expressions, deletes a false idea, replaces it with a right one.”, and ended with Ayo’s conclusion that, “Copyright kills creativity and only guarantees revenue to the right owners. However, in order to advance as a society people must share knowledge and bring about an explosion of creativity.”

At the heart of copyright protection (and IP protection generally) is the delicate balance between encouraging innovation by rewarding creators with monopolistic rights over their creations, and maximising the commercial use of the creation, typically for the benefit of the general public. For most works of art, copyright protection lasts for the life of the creator plus another 50 years to 70 years depending on the type of work. After the duration of copyright protection, the work falls into the public domain and is free for use without the permission of the copyright owner. So, in a sense, while copyright tilts the scale in favour of the individual creator, copyleft puts a thumb on the side of society’s general interests. 

Copyleft is a licensing method that gives the public the right to do with a work anything that would require a license to do with a copyrighted work. For instance, while under copyright protection, a license is required to use, modify, distribute, and create derivatives from a copyrighted work. A work made available under copyleft requires no such permission except that the work and all modifications of it remain free or available to the public under the same copyleft license. The use of copyleft licensing is widespread and understood among software authors, but is not limited to that field. Other works including photographs and music are available under some sort of free sharing license, with or without conditions. For instance, photographs made available on platforms like Pixabay and Pexel may be free for personal and commercial use with no attribution required, or they may be free for personal use with attribution required for commercial use. Creative Commons is another platform dedicated to collaborative creators and the whole idea of copyleft. You can search their content to learn more and find works available for public use.

I have introduced the copyleft conversation to my little man, but for now, all he sees is a big copyright sledgehammer over his head. I see a glimmer of belief in his eyes. Just a little. So for now, I leave you with these eyes that I have permission to post. The expectation is that we’ll get to a place (hopefully soon) where he has a more rounded understanding of copyright and the allowable uses of copyrighted works, and copyleft and open sources for inspiration so that he can create freely.

Click here to read the basics about copyright.