Appropriation, amplification, & the threat to good intentions of the commons

Ridolfo and Rife’s “Rhetorical Velocity” explores all of the perspectives in establishing a creative commons available for public use.  

This refers specifically to a cultural context, which Claudia Caruthers (1998) asserted that the commons provides a unique lens with which to understand the increasingly inefficient conceptual framework of cultural property protection in this area.” (Ridolfo & Rife, 238)  However, appropriation is a foremost consideration in building this ideal, particularly because in Maggie’s case in this reading, as in many others, it is what defines the boundaries of what this commons may look like.  The risk of appropriation of certain images may give more privileged groups license to hold even more power than they already over marginalized groups.  Maggie’s case alludes to a similar concept- a student activist’s image taken out of context in order to promote the school.  An individual versus an organization raking in whatever money they can (even if that organization is a university).  Imagine a more general issue: A few years ago, Chik-Fil-A was in the media a lot due to controversy regarding their policies and beliefs about LGBTQA rights. Protesters are outside the Chik-Fil-A, featuring a queer couple holding hands, for one brief moment sharing an intimate moment, taking a break from their protesting.  A Chik-Fil-A manager snaps a picture of the two, doesn’t ask for their permission, doesn’t tell them about the photo, and also happens to hold a lot of power in the marketing department.  Pretty soon they run ads with this couple to combat all of the bad press, where they’re in front of the Chik-Fil-A.  This is appropriation, and this is misuse of the creative commons.  This is what Ridolfo and Rife warn us about in their “Rhetorical Velocity.”

Amplification is an apt, comparable term with appropriation.  For Longinus, he does not “feel satisfied with the definition given by rhetoricians: ‘amplification is expression which gives grandeur to its subject…’ amplification involves extension… amplification cannot exist without a certain quantity and superfluity.” (Longinus, 354)  Although Longinus refers to amplification in distinguishing it from the sublime, it is necessary to acknowledge this term in the more modern context of copyright culture and the development of the creative commons.  The sublime is altogether a state of being and happenings where one can transcend from the mundane to something more noumenal, rather than just “beyond.”  The motives behind amplification is primarily concerned with “the aggregation of all the details and topics which constitute a situation, strengthening the argument by dwelling on it; it differs from the proof in that the latter demonstrates the point made…” (Longinus, 354)  Neither the Maggie case nor the imagined Chik-Fil-A scenario represent anything sublime.  However, they do rely on amplification to strengthen certain arguments, specifically differing from actual proof a situation.