In "Excerpt: Bound By Law", an editorial cartoon by Keith Aoki, follows a common issue among copyright law and intellectual property. He follows the main character; a woman who wants to film a documentary about capturing a day in the life of New York, where she explores the city and the number of texts along with the variety of culture she wants to include in her film. She soon begins to realize that many of the things she wants to include in her documentary have limited use because of the broad copyright law and the term of protections they hold. The cartoon wants the readers to take a look at the ideas surrounding "fair use" in the public domain, and how copy rights and intellectual property should be protected for the sake of one's original expressions of an idea to not be republished or resold. But, also should not be overprotected for the sake of the public's domain for research, critiques, knowledge, and creativity that the original idea contains. Both textual and visual imagery is used, and is spread out over a sequence of frames. The tone regarding this excerpt is very playful, as demonstrated in the last page of the excerpt where recognizable paintings and images are used to get Keith Aoki's point across. This editorial cartoon reflects the fair and incidental use of creative common licensing among copyright law and intellectual property in a playful yet driven demeanor.
In "Address Before Members of the United States Congress", Micheal Eisner, the Chief Executive Officer of the Walt Disney Company, addresses the many issues regarding the limited protection of intellectual property in the digital age, along with five solutions to protect these rights in the cyber world. His ideas were laid out in the form of a persuasive speech advertisement, where he among many leading members in business communities, could share their ideas about "Opportunities Facing the Internet". The speech was addressed to the members of Congress through art, music, and imagery; the ways intellectual property is defined through, more than simply words. The speech was directed to the less educated, along with the audiences of copyright related industries, motion pictures, television, home video, music, publishing, and computer sequences, to work together with government agencies, in order to resolve the ever-growing crisis towards the lack of intellectual property security, and the terrain of advancements the digital age has provided through the internet. It was spoken in a friendly tone, allowing the audience to connect with the speaker, while bouncing from analogies, to cause-and-effect strategies, used to make this speech persuasive. Micheal used historical examples throughout his speech through the use of video clips, which gave the audience examples of the incredible and creative images technology has allowed us to create today, along with the striking irony it also brought to the table; the disappearance of this original creativity completely. He focused mainly on one example, the movie "Dinosaurs", which he explained took over four years to accomplish special sound affects, "dino-cams", extensive background research, and advancements in animation, in order to bring the 80-minute film to life. He then goes to explain that all these efforts can be easily pirated and compacted into a simple DVD, thanks to the ever-growing technological advancements which are making this task easier and faster to accomplish. Internet programs such as iCrave.com, Napster, Wrapster, Freenet, and Gnutella, promote intellectual property pirating through their websites, where most pirates claim, "It's just cracking a digital code", but as Micheal puts it, "it would be [the same as] justifiable to crack a bank code and transfer the funds from someone else's account into your own. Theft is theft, whether enabled by a handgun or a computer keyboard". Micheal states very strong facts regarding the overexposure and under-secured intellectual property today, and addressed the multiple internet hardware companies that don't protect piracy because of the internet's need to continue publishing new content, which in turn only helps promote the long-term interests of those companies, while companies like Disney seek opportunities in technological advancements, while participating in the expansion of the internet through their many .Go sites. Because Disney desires to contribute to the internet's information and resources, without having to surrender their rights regarding their intellectual property, they came up with five steps to help address this problem. First, Micheal states that intellectual property rights is really no different than ordinary property rights, and that the government should treat these matters accordingly by protecting what is rightfully theirs by assuring new solutions to copyright security. Secondly, that governments around the world should work together on a global scale to help protect these rights. Thirdly, many people are still uneducated regarding the consequences of downloading copyrighted material off the internet, and believe it could be enforced with a warning similar to the FBi one's seen at the begging of VHS video tapes. Fourthly, because piracy is a technical problem, it should be solved through technical solutions. This can be accomplished when all studios, broadcasters, record companies, and technological companies work together to stay one step ahead of pirates and hackers through the use of encryption and watermarking systems. Last but not least, it raises an economic issue, where pirates try to sell poor quality products at what the consumer believes is a suitable price. But, it has been demonstrated time and time again that legitimate products will still be purchased for the appropriate prices, which continues to boost the economy positively. He concludes his speech by informing his strategies' success through the recognition and commitment of the community as a whole, that theft will not be tolerated in any form, and once this law is enforced in the cyber-digital world as much as it is enforced in the real world, the communication, education, entertainment, and commerce the internet provides, can someday be limitless and continue to produce better creative horizons in the future.
In "The Privatization of our Culture", Bret Dawson addresses some of the issues regarding our digital culture, copyright bullying, stolen intellectual property, and the ways big intellectual property owners are trying to expand and protect their copyrights. Bret Dawson uses visual persuasion in his article, where he open with the 9-11 incidents, and its' relation to a birthday party for a four year old and the imagination and wonder that four year old possesses. It is then followed by superheroes and the roll they play in society, Harry Potter fan sites, the shut down of Napster, and our media soaked society. Although he jumps rapidly from one example to the next, without clarifying his argument thoroughly, he does try to relate his argument to all audiences, referring back to childhood memories, along with putting the reader in the perspective of his choice; one that reveals how, "our entire culture has fallen into private hands." This does prove a point in some aspects, due to the fact that our society is consumed by communication through big brands and logos that we see, leading us to only communicate in one specific way. So how can our ideas now, not have come from previous ideas in the past? Dawson goes on to say that although these big brand names deserve rights to their intellectual property, it is also our right to access their intellectual property, so we may too have the freedom to tell stories of superheroes the way we desire, while having the ability to be creative and aspire new ideas, following the major ones that encouraged them. He believes that we the people have just as much power and rights to these intellectual properties as the next man, and even resorting to measures of civil disobedience or public debate, can help protect these rights and stop big intellectual property owners from taking too much away from our society that is driven by big intellectual properties themselves.
In "Hijacking Harry Potter, Quidditch Broom and All", author Bill Werde, the Editorial Director for Billboard, gives examples in his article of "fair use" in copyrighting to better serve the public, along with opinions of original filmmakers regarding "fair use", and the customized remakes of films by fans. In his article, he explains that Harry Potter was a very successful series and upon its release, a fan had a new idea to re-create the soundtrack and characters in the film, to suit his own liking. Another fan tried to do the same with a newer version of Star Wars, but crossed copyright laws when it began selling at local comic book stores, which is illegal in intellectual property laws. The remake of Harry Potter to "Wizard People, Dear Reader", was protected under the window of "fair use" in copyright laws, because it allowed the public to give criticism, comments, and news reporting on its behalf. He quotes from a co-director at Harvard Law School that, "The long-term strategic threat to the entertainment industry, is that people will get in the habit of creating and making as much as watching and listening...[But] It could very possibly be in the interest of publishers to see a market in providing raw material along with finished product." Although there is a lack of legal clarity, this kind of recreation can open up a whole new market, while renovating new ideas to the public, giving culture a new face of an art form, quoted, "one everyone should experience for themselves."