Borrowing and Copying in the Visual

Chapter 8 -- Fair Use and the Visual Arts: Please Leave Some Room for Robin Hood by Stephen E. Weil, Image Ethics in the Digital Age

"Whatever the advantages of such a system in commercial convenience, the potential threat to creative freedom could be considerable. If visual artists are to enrich our society by "molding and remolding" the environment in which we live, they require unfettered access to all of the aspects of that environment -- including however much thereof may happen to consist of materials copyrighted by others -- so that they can do their work and so that we have its ultimate benefit" (181).

Stephen E. Weil lays a pretty clear background on what constitutes fair use in relation to copyright, as it pertains to the visual world. While he is right in claiming that summarizing the visual image or artwork is a lot more complicated than summarizing a written work, the idea behind the visual image is still to be protected under copyright, particularly fair use. I wonder if fair use recognizes the potential thievery of ideas that can happen even in an educational context.

In the above-quoted passage, Weil touches upon the "potential threat to creative freedom" but still acknowledges that visual artworks and images need to have sprung up from an initial idea, whether borrowed or original (most of the time, borrowed). If, however, artists' visual works are placed in the public for the world to not only see, but to borrow from, how does this protect an artist's creative idea? Pretty soon, one person's idea will be taken on by many other people that this original idea will cease to be original, but rather copied. This notion of borrowing and copying, although strictly looked down upon in the writing form, is free for all in the visual form. So then, if it is an acceptable practice in one area, should it not also be acceptable in the writing arts?

No matter how complicated the process of trying to summarize a visual artwork, effort is still necessary to protect the original claim to creativity that the initial artist has. These visual artworks still benefit us and allow other artists to do their work, but it should go without saying that the ideas borrowed and copied should be kept to a very minimal aspect of the produced work. Whatever the borrowed and copied idea be, the artist and the public should take it merely as inspiration, but not as an element to replicate.