Plenty of sites now referencing the latest Cindy Sheehan ramblings that Clinton's policies "are responsible for killing more Iraqis that George Bush."
But before she spewed that particualr bit of wisdom, her interviewer admitted this interesting little tidbit -
Ronan: 'Cindy, if I may, just of the benefit of some readers who might be reading this, I want to tell you a story which illustrates the power of the American government in this country. Ten years ago, I organized a protest when President Clinton shelled Baghdad and killed an Iraqi painter called Laila Alataar--who was the leading Iraq painter of the Middle East--and all of her children. That evening, I got an invitation to the American Embassy to an exhibition of paintings including one by my son James, who'd won a Texaco art competition. I happen to be a copyright lawyer, so I saw they were in breach of copyright, thus I wrote to the American Embassy saying "Take my son's painting off exhibition" because I didn't want the name "Sheehan" to be associated with murderers. I said the reason I'm doing that is to protest the unlawful killing of Laila Alataar, something that our present Minister for Justice [Michael MacDowell] condemned in the Dáil. So they had to take the painting down because it was in breach of copyright--they hadn't got permission.'
As the above example illustrates, the concept of 'copyright' has evolved to the point where you don't even have to make a copy of anything to violate it. It also has nothing to do with "incentives" for making creative works anymore. It is simply a raw political tool to deprive people of certain modes of expression in an increasingly media driven world.
Intellectual property attorneys...the new ambulance chasers of the 21st Century.
Part XI of the Tyranny of Copyright here.
Posted by Justin Levine at January 25, 2006 02:49 PM | TrackBack