Bound By Law?

Continuing on the thread of discussion about Creative Commons and copyright issues, I highly recommend reading Bound By Law?, a graphic comic available to read online free under a Creative Commons license. I originally read this comic for a non-fiction production class that I took at my college back in the states. In the class we were being taught how to produce, direct, film, edit, and distribute documentaries. However that isn't all a filmmaker has to worry about these days. It is equally important to learn about restrictions most likely to be encountered on the journey to becoming a documentary filmmaker. The restrictions I speak of are the ones created by copyright law--an ever-perplexing set of rules that draws a hazy line between fair use and copyright infringement.

Law in general can be quite dull and confusing to most people, so "Bound By Law?" aims to create a fun and simple graphic novel that teaches copyright basics, particularly when it comes to documentary. There are also tons of facts about music and graphic copyrights, and historical info about copyright law, too. It answers such questions as: "Why do we have copyrights?" and "What's 'fair use'?" The book itself was produced by Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain, which interests itself in intellectual property and the cobweb of rules that surround it. Also, as part of the Creative Commons, "Bound By Law?" has a license that allows all people "to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work" and "to make derivative works" of the graphic novel. However, you must not use the work for commercial purposes, you must distribute work related to this under the same Creative Commons license, and you must attribute this work to its authors. These rules are very clear and very creatively open, and that's what the Creative Commons is all about.

Just to spark your interest about "Bound By Law?" a little more, here's a fact it brings up: the classic work "Moby Dick" has no copyright protection, but your recent diary entries are copyright protected for the duration of your life + 70 years. Find out why by reading "Bound By Law?"!