Authorship Invasion

The thing that I couldn't stop thinking about as I muddled my way through these readings was not so much about the abstract idea of whether the culturally mythical author transcends himself or his work transcends him, but rather about how any of this applies to cultural "works" and media today. One of the common threads shared by the three authors in their articles was that as we are hurtling forward through time, our culture is tending toward an ever-expanding definition of what constitutes "author," and that in that expansion, some element of "authorness" is being lost.

In my opinion, these references to draughtsmen or the struggle of photographers to gain recognition are interesting historical notes, but it seems like we have a much more urgent invasion of authorship to focus on--one that is more relevant to the moment we're in. This invasion is the inclusion of large companies--of entire industries themselves-- as "author bodies". I understand that the line between what could constitute a "cultural" work versus an "industrial" one is tenuous, but it simply does not seem right to me that whatever the status of the work itself that "The author of a computer program written while in the service of an employer has no rights whatsoever over the work; the employer becomes the author" (Nesbit 257) even if the employer has nothing to do with the work that is produced.

This trend wherein authors are treated merely as cogs in the great sweatshops of media production rather than as creative individuals seems to be expanding into many genres of the media that make up our ambient culture today, far beyond the realm of computer software. How is it that we are allowing, under the banner of "authorship" and "copyright", the heads of companies to benefit from the sweat of another's brow? The actual creators should have some share in what their creations bring in, and at the very least no one should have more share in the control over it than they do.

It's all well and good to say that an author is an author as long as they retain their rights as an author, but nowadays we are living in a culture where generally it is simply not possible to put your own authored work into the public sphere without giving up your rights.

In an ideal world, I would hope that even if large groups of people came together to collectively author something, they would be able to share in the fruits of their labor. Obviously this ideal is a long time in coming, but who knows? The companies can't keep getting bigger forever. In any case thanks for letting me vent. :)