Long Road

Check out this article from the NYT about the possibility of some members of the Yellow Pocahontas tribe in NOLA using copyright as a means to protect the use of their images by others. Whatever side of this dilemma, and their are actually many sides, you may fall on in terms on copyright as a vehicle for this type of cultural “protection,” the most disturbing response in the article is from Christopher Porché West one of the photographers who benefits from the sale of these photos:

“What they really need to do is self-exploit,” he said. If they want to make money from their culture, he said, “they should find a way to commodify it and bring that to the market.”

“Self-exploit”…that’s the name of the game in the 21 century I suppose…