Wk 1 Peer Comment-Heidi

I too was shocked by the video, “Eye on the Fair Use of the Prize.” It is horrifying that our history can remain unseen just because of a copyright issue.  History belongs to the people not to corporations.  I hadn’t thought about the political ramifications of the issue until I read your post.  The media is definitely one of the most powerful entities in this country.  The media creates popular viewpoints, pushes political candidates into office, insights public opinion of the law system, creates views of our lifestyle, and disperses information about new world developments.  By allowing important pieces of our history to remain unknown, we truly are changing the history of our country.

I think it is great that independent documentarians have stood up and created the “Best Practices in Fair Use” manual. What I don’t understand is why don’t people take more of a stand. If lawmakers can move the copyright length back to a lifetime plus 70 years, then with enough protest and civil disobedience it could be brought back to a more reasonable amount of time. I was particularly shocked by the video “Eye on the Fair Use of the Prize.” I think it is horrible and should be downright illegal for people to “lock away” our true history. It is truly a conspiracy of those in power to manipulate citizens (particularly young people that don’t have a reference) to make their political agendas reality. I find what was portrayed in that video to represent media using copyright laws to whitewash our history through lies of omission. I want to go beyond just “following the rules and sneaking around with Fair Use” people need to stand up and change these laws back to the people and not for profit makers.

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