unit 09 — remixing culture (discussion)
I had a couple of thoughts regarding this week’s materials on remix culture and copyright law. First, did anyone else draw a corollary between what Lesig said about the “age of prohibition” (Lesig, TED) we live in and drug culture as it relates to legalization?
The arguments he makes against certain kinds of read-only culture remind me strongly of the kind folks make regarding legalization laws: “We need to recognize you can’t kill the instant that technology produces, we can only criminalize it. We can’t stop our kids from using it; we can only drive it underground. We can’t make our kids passive again; we can only make them “pirates”– and is that good?” (Lesig, TED).
How do you feel about ordinary people living their lives against the law (Lesig, TED) as it relates to what Lesig discusses? As it relates to drug culture? Do you think that sort of underground realization is equally corrosive and corruptive to a society when it comes to drug culture? (Lesig, TED).
The other thought I had while watching the presentation and looking over the reading was about intellectual property at large. Nothing exists nor is created in a void. Everything piggy-backs on prior developments and discoveries: how do you think this idea should influence copyright law? Or how not?
I had not drawn the connection between remixing and drug legalization that you did, but it’s an interesting point. I’m curious if you would view drug legalization as a read-only culture or a read-write culture movement? That distinction would ask the question of whether the legalization/legal aspect is a top-down authority gesture or if it is in response to read-write interaction. I personally would view it as a read-write perspective, and view illegalization to be part of RO culture. Lessig talks about living against the law being detrimental to the next generation (TED, Lessig) but in terms of your connection it brings up the question of if the prohibition of drug use is the problem, or if it is the drug use in itself.
On another note, I’m glad you brought up intellectual property rights because that was one of my big questions in this whole idea of remixing. How do you account for intellectual property, and does someone remixing a work make it into a new piece of intellectual property? Any thoughts?
I agree with you 100 percent that everything piggy-backs on prior developments and discoveries. If you think about it, everything you do copies the idea of someone else. You just use it in another way to make it “yours”. I believe that copyright laws should not be as strict as they are now. The way that the copyright laws are set up now it limits creativity as the video said. If they limit the rights those laws have people would not have a hard time coming up with new creations.