IP Law

Briefly, IP laws give people and businesses control over creations of the mind used in commerce. Through copyright, trademarks and patents, among other things, they enable creators and rights holders to be compensated for their work if stolen or licensed out. 

Of course, IP law is not perfect. Often, big companies wield IP law like a sledgehammer to extract as much money as possible. Think of Disney using all its resources to guard its IP despite working from many public domain sources. The contributions of many workers to an IP can often be overlooked and attributed to the business they work for. To say nothing of how the horrendous enforcement of IP law can sometimes serve as a tool to enforce hegemony. See the guarding of medical IP during the pandemic. Additionally, considering most ideas are built on the ideas of others, sometimes IP law can feel restrictive to creators. You could understand someone agreeing with this in a vacuum and all things being equal. 

But that is not the situation we are in. Plus, while these laws may be abused and reform is certainly needed, they are useful to ensure smaller creators’ work is protected and that they are compensated for it.

Money vs Art

So why did Dorsey tweet this? In a later tweet, responding to the dangers of AI, he clarified, “Creativity is what currently separates us, and the current system is limiting that, and putting the payments disbursement into the hands of gatekeepers who aren’t paying out fairly.” This indicates that his main goal for deleting the current system relating to IP laws would be to remove data gathering barriers to allow for more possibilities with AI projects and monetisation. Charitably, you could say he hopes for an equal playing field between people creating IP. However, as someone worth over $3 billion with his own AI venture, it reads like he is saying AI companies shouldn’t be limited by IP restrictions. Including paying to use IP that AI tools use to make their owners’ profits. But how does this relate to art?

Recently, we have seen many stories about AI concerns in the art world. One key concern of the SAG-AFTRA/WGA 2023 strikes was the encroachment of AI on industry jobs. Debates have raged around AI being used in Oscar-nominated films, and everyone saw the AI images imitating Studio Ghibli’s aesthetic. Undoubtedly, to Hayao Miyazaki’s annoyance. But while you can argue about how AI can benefit smaller budget productions, enhance already existing production elements and produce shitposts online these tools will largely be used by big companies to streamline the making of art over anything artisticly valuable. As Jack Dorsey proves, it will be done to maximise profits for those with resources at the expense of creatives. 

Art-ificial 

In the era of Elon Musk, we shouldn’t be surprised when billionaires use social media to try and advance a selfish and harmful agenda. Though their proximity to power is cause for concern. Ultimately, this is just the latest example of how businesses continue to try to devalue art. Seeing it as a money-making venture and little more.

With AI tools becoming more widespread, artists will have to continue to fight for their work to be respected. Some small-scale recommendations include manually removing your work from AI data scraping and being more cautious about posting work online. Larger-scale actions such as workplace and industry union organising to influence company procedures, cultural attitudes and regulations around AI will also be needed moving forward. The future for AI in the arts is uncertain, but art and artists deserve to be seen as more than data to generate material for the profits of billionaires.

The post Twitter Co-Founder Wants to “Delete All IP Law” – How Will Filmmakers and Writers Be Protected in the Age of AI? appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

What Is An Audio Drama?

Audio dramas are podcasts that are fictional and tell a story. Similar shows have obviously existed on the radio since the dawn of that medium and at one point were one of the major cultural touchstones. BBC Radio 4 show The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy would be a good non-podcast example of this sort of show.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of these podcasts and leaving aside any quality control enough to keep Hollywood going for decades. In fact, there are several that have already been made into TV shows. Limetown an early masterpiece of audio drama podcasts was made by Apple TV, Archive 81 appeared on Netflix, and development hell, rumours and failed projects have stalked many of the more popular podcasts.

So will are the good and bad parts of focusing on audio dramas as the next source of Hollywood inspiration:

Pro: Quality

To be absolutely clear in any medium the gamut of quality runs from terrible to brilliant but there are truly sensational audio dramas out there. Given the relatively low costs and easy accessibility to the medium, virtually anyone can make a podcast and this has given voice to talented writers, directors etc who may never had the opportunity to make a tv show or film. Within The Wires, for example, is a continuing source of originality, drama and genuine beauty, depicting a possibly dystopian future or alternate timeline with each series told via an ingenious delivery method.

Con: Story Structure

Most fiction podcasts tell long stories. WtNV has almost three hundred episodes, The Magnus Archives around 200, and often part of the point is the long drawn-out nature of the story. Now how do you take WtNV and its 300 episodes full of characters, organisations, monsters etc and make a film about it? Inevitably stuff will be cut out, fans will be disappointed and perhaps the spirit of the show won’t be captured. And then the very nature of some podcasts – the above-mentioned Within The Wires in the second series each episode is framed as an audio guide around an art gallery…who is going to adapt that? The answer of course would be the long awaited Christopher Nolan-Denis Villeneuve co-director project.

Con & Pro: Fame

Fiction podcasts are not well-known. Even the most popular are niche. Sometimes when adapting a book or play the filmmakers see that the source material is brilliant regardless of how successful it was. Sometimes people adapt other works simply because there is a large existing audience. You will not attract a large audience simply by adapting podcasts, but by the same token, it’s probably going to be a lot cheaper to buy the rights than a bestselling novel.

The only deciding factor will be whether it is successful. If Iron Man had failed spectacularly there wouldn’t be decades of movies following in its wake. If someone adapts The Bright Sessions audio drama (therapy for people with superpowers) and it is a huge success then there will be more.

Also Read: Five Great Film Podcasts To Listen To Right Now

The post Audio Dramas: Hollywood’s Next Frontier for New Stories? appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.