Hasta la ganancia, siempre!

An anonymous commentary to the post Globalization? Ch�!, written yesterday, made the point that the "Korda" image of Ch� Guevara can be used for "revolutionary" purposes without infringing on copyright. This is an interesting claim. If it means that people carrying makeshift posters of Ch� while kicking the windows at a GAP store are likely not paying copyright dues, he is probably right.

My point in the posting was that Guevara's "Korda" image (see Globalization? Ch�!) is now copyrighted, and the rights are owned by Fashion Victim, a company out of Atlanta, Georgia. There are several layers of irony here. For one, the very idea of copyright is a capitalist concept, considering that bona fide communists do not believe in private property. To copyright something is to lay claim to it as one's property, even if it is an idea or image, even when one distributes it as sharewear (pun is intended)! For whatever the purpose, the very fact that the image is branded, bought and sold, is antithetical to Guevara's life and to his beliefs. How would Comandante Guevara judge his image being printed on underwear and then sold by the shiploads?, we will never know. But his daughter objects to the notion.

Alberto Korda, the Cuban photographer who took the famous image in 1960 exercized his property rights when he sued Smirnoff's advertising agents. Fashion Victim has already exercised its propietorship muscle to threaten people selling T-shirts with Ch�'s image. See Northern Sun vs. Fashion Victim. The former bought the rights from the Estate of the deceased Alberto Korda, who died in 2001. Fashion Victim acquired the rights in 2002. So the point is that those wearing Ch� shirts and banners in university and college campuses, or at the latest anarchist, or antiglobalization window smashing march, are buying from "private owners" or are paying indirect royalties to them. Where it used to be "viva la revoluci�n!," now at the cash register it sounds more like "viva la globalizaci�n!"

And what is more, in another twist of irony for Guevara's legacy, Fashion Victim has admitted to having their Ch� T-shirts crafted in sweatshops in Honduras, the second poorest country in the western hemisphere. Ch� did have a greater preference for the poor in Guatemala.

Economists say that demands need to be supplied. And when the demand is so large that there are large amounts of money to be made, someone is bound to stake a property claim in a big way. What is a wonder is that it took as long as it did. It seems that Korda had principled beliefs --and one can admire that-- but, alas, he appears not to have effectively transmitted them to his beneficiaries.

Guevara's well-known battle cry was "hasta la victoria, siempre!" [Until victory, always]. Considering the issues here, we may now modify it a little for the sake of the image's owners: "Hasta la ganancia, siempre!" [Until profit, always].