Best Case for Moral Rights Ever: Monopoly Fantasy Edition
posted by Frank Pasquale
“Moral rights” permit artists to veto certain uses of their work when they don’t approve of the use. For example, under the Visual Artists Rights Act, an artist has a right “to prevent any intentional distortion, mutilation, or other modification of [their] work which would be prejudicial to his or her honor or reputation.” Some advocate expanding that right from actual works to copyrighted materials generally (giving, for instance, a right to an artist to veto a modification or use of their work even if they don’t own the copyright anymore).
I’m usually skeptical of that kind of rights expansion, but this video is giving me second thoughts. It’s a passionate celebration of a bank merger, ala U2’s classic song “One.” As NPR reports, “The song is so painfully bad that it has become an Internet phenomenon.” These lyrics are extraordinary:
Refrain:
One bank, One Card,
One name that’s known all over the world.
One heart, filled with spirit
We feel it–Share it!
One bank, every day,
Bringing higher standards,
Higher standards—wooo-oooo!
Well, so far my experience of Bank of America’s “higher standards” is frustration at being unable to pay my MBNA credit card online anymore. But have we ever heard a more lyrical explication of Borkian antitrust policy? “One bank, one card, one monop’ly–by no competition law marred!”
November 22, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Posted in: Humor
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Responses (5)
AEI Rocks! - November 22, 2006 at 5:31 pm
But these “moral rights” would seem to prevent the creation of more art. It is protectionist. So consumer welfare is lessened. Bork is all about maximizing consumer welfare.
Jack S. - November 22, 2006 at 6:53 pm
VARA isn’t an absolute right given to the artist. It can be easily contracted out of. If the artist doesn’t agree to relinquish the right, then find another artist. It’s called free markets, and it works pretty well in the abstract.
Chris Bell - November 22, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Am I strange for not finding it that bad?
Anon - November 24, 2006 at 1:26 am
>>Am I strange for not finding it that bad?<
Hell. Yes.
borkian gordian - November 24, 2006 at 11:45 am
The question is not whether you can buy art from the artist. The question is whether your own innovation can be considered someone else’s property and you can be sued for trying to profit off your own copyright. This protectionist policy chills art-making, especially of the conceptual kind that explicitly trades on reference to prior art.
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