Okay, it's bad enough that Steamboat Willie, a cartoon released by Disney in 1928 is still under copyright protection 43 years after the death of old Walt, and not scheduled to enter the public domain until nearly 100 years after its release. Increasing political and financial pressures have convinced western governments to all but ensure that nothing ever will pass into the public domain, which is a problem for educators seeking content to use in the course of their work.
This Ralph Lauren ad, if it had been around when I was teaching the "Computer Impact on Society" course, would most definitely have been part of my presentation. In that course I have a unit on captology, or the study of the computer as a persuasive device. For this we zero in on the subject of what happens when you can no longer believe your eyes because AP news photographers fudge, stage and/or Photoshop their images? How is it that Marilyn Monroe was considered attractive 50 years ago but today would be sent to a fat farm? Why is it that eating disorders are occurring as early as the elementary school years (my own son likes to taunt his twin sister, 8 years of age, with the charge that she is "fat")?
I believe part of the answer is the irresponsible ad images projected by companies like Ralph Lauren and this ad in particular. But what happens when you point this out as a fair use defense of reproducing the image for public consumption for the purposes of criticism? Ralph Lauren threatens your ISP with a DCMA take-down notice.
Cory Doctorow, who writes compellingly of the repressive uses of new technologies against the individual and against individual freedoms (see in particular Little Brother) notes of the Ralph Lauren threat, instead of responding to their legal threat by suppressing our criticism of their marketing images, we're gonna mock them... So, to Ralph Lauren, GreenbergTraurig, and PRL Holdings, Inc: sue and be damned. Copyright law doesn't give you the right to threaten your critics for pointing out the problems with your offerings. You should know better..
It's nice to know that not all companies are as reprehensible. Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty produced this very nice video and apparently has not issued any DCMA takedown notices to YouTube for posting it!
UPDATE
Ralph Lauren issues apology the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment