Learning Unit Objectives:
- Become acquainted with copyright as a historic, cultural and economic paradigm and its value and pertinence to creative works.
- Explore the changing nature of copyright in the context of “Remix Culture”
- Examine your own and others values and paradigms of ownership and authorship of cultural media.
Artifact #8: Remix ( Click Here)
In the video “Laws that Choke Creativity”, Lawrence firstly talk three stories to express his argument. He mentions two kinds of culture. One is the read-write culture and “It is a culture where people participate in the creation and the re-creation of their culture” (Lawrence). Another is the read-only culture which is “top-down, owned, where the vocal chords of the millions have been lost” (Lawrence). When we look back twentieth century, the culture are more from read-write culture to read-only culture until the appearance of internet. Lawrence believes that internet is an opportunity to change this situation and revive the read-write culture. Then he talks about digital technologies and shows some examples. People add something new based on the old things and make them different. It seems that this creation bring the hope for the revival of read-write culture. However, the problems arise from this. There is a contraction between the law and the use of digital technology. This use of digital technology violates the copyright and is illegal. Lawrence feels unsatisfied with this because he believes this culture where people produce for the love of what they are doing and not for money should be supported. He believes we cannot count on the change of laws and he provides his own solutions. The first one is that the artists and creators who embrace the idea can make their work more free, but not free for commercial use. The second is that we need the business that build out the read-write culture so that the ecology of free content can grow on a neutral platform. This will create a competition between more-freely and less-freely. Actually I don’t know whether his solution can work. I believe the regulation of use of digital technology like this is reasonable. We should promote the development of this culture, but we are not sure that all purposes for using this technology is good and beneficial. I believe the effects of laws are not completely harmful.
Reflection:
From this assignment, we can know two different kinds of culture. They are read-write culture and read-only culture. One is the culture where people will participate in the creation and recreation of culture. One is the culture where consumers and creaters are separate. Look back our twentieth century, the culture are more from read-write culture to read-only culture. However, the appearance of internet change this. People can use digital technology make something different based on old things. Lawrence believes that this should be encouraged because this is an opportunity to revive the read-write culture. I also believe this is a good opportunity, but there is contractions between this and laws. I think we cannot totally deny the good effect of laws because there are people who steal other’s ideas and make profits.
Future:
I’m not a person who is good at remixing. So in the future, I will try to learn something about remix. I believe I lack a certain understanding about this kind of creation with digital technology. I also will encourage my friends to know something about this. I know that there is a contraction between remix and law. But I still have a hope for revival of read-write culture and Only have a understanding about remix, we can have opportunities to make it better.
Bibliography:
Table of Contents:
Artifact #1: Life Value Assessment
Artifact #6: Creative Spirituality