This Copyright Kills Fascists: Debunking the Mythology Surrounding Woody Guthrie, "This Land Is Your Land," and the Public Domain

Abstract

abstract:Advocates of an expanded public domain and less restrictive copyright policies have made Woody Guthrie a cause célèbre 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. For proponents of public domain expansion who have mythologized Guthrie, this research thoroughly debunks that myth.