This Copyright Kills Fascists: Debunking the Mythology Surrounding Woody Guthrie, "This Land is Your Land," and the Public Domain
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Authors
Jason Lee Guthrie
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Journal Article, Academic Journal
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Abstract
Advocates of an expanded public domain and less restrictive copyright policies have made Woody Guthrie a <i>cause célèbre</i> for their point of view. Meditations on his artistic persona are used to support their argument, as is a direct quote about copyright that is cited with surprising frequency despite lacking proper citation. This research locates the source for Guthrie’s copyright quote and corrects several false assumptions about its meaning as well as about Guthrie’s wider copyright activities.<b> </b>For proponents of public domain expansion that have mythologized Guthrie, this research thoroughly debunks that myth.