Enterprise Village: Intellectual Property and Rural Optimization

Part 1: This week's reading opened by describing an initiative in Peru to incorporate connectivity into zones of rural production. Bringing IP claims into these areas were seen as a way to bring people together, but have actually had the exact opposite effect. This new development has created ripples of distrust through these communities, turning artisans against one another. The governmental drive for this project went beyond helping these communities. Much of the hope behind developing an IP system was as a way for Peru to find and maintain footing in a developing world economy. Many other countries have been doing the exact same. Claiming an IP means giving it a definition, and the article showed how thin and fragile that definition can be. Instead of this 'genuine' art that was originally granted protections, now the artists have become laborers, all trained exactly the same way to ensure they remain within their copyrights.

Part 2: I think that placing a protection on art sounds like a wonderful idea at first. However, it is clear that in order to remain within that protected umbrella the artist and their creativity must be thoroughly stifled. What a horrible bubble to exist within. Art and culture are meant to move and grow, shifting from one focus to another. Though I will say that something like this seems like a great concept in that it maintains the importance of classical methods in society. It's just a matter of what is more important. If the country's economy is threatened I understand taking the step Peru did, though if they had other means then this forced IP assignment seems to have frozen time for a moment. In my personal opinion that is no way for an artist to live.