Topic: Remixing Culture
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” and the “Fifth World”
- Examine your own and others values and paradigms of ownership and authorship of cultural media.
- Evaluate the meanings of real and fake and examine their intersection with personal and cultural identity and authenticity.
Artifact: They Push, We Push Back Harder
The aggressive and seemingly insecure actions taken by the corporate behemoths that are in control of the of mainstream media to remove Copyrighted content from the internet seem extreme to many users. As explained by Lessig, the response to this aggression is the opposite extreme: complete disregard of Copyright laws. As torrent sites continue to grow, it becomes clear that black markets will always will always exist (especially in response to overly aggressive persecution).
If you were a part of the group that fights to protect intellectual property rights, what would you do differently than what is currently taking place?
Reflection:
As someone that feels very strongly about copyright laws and patents in general, I found Lessig’s talk to be quite interesting. While companies like Apple have adapted to the digital age by providing music via iTunes, further analysis of this business model raises many questions. Why are we limited in what we are allowed to do with the music and movies that we purchase? Why are albums and movies the same price as they are in the stores, despite the fact that the costs of physically producing and distributing the physical media are all but eliminated? Because pirating media is quite easy for anyone that is tech-savvy, it’s hard for one to justify paying so much money just to get the latest episodes of their favorite shows, in addition to waiting for the DVD to be released long after the show has aired.
Learning Goals for the Future:
The fact that younger generations have rejected many legitimate means to obtain media is demonstrative of a much larger issue: the growing divide between the young and the old. As our generation remains underemployed and underpaid, it’s not hard to see why many are unwilling to further line the pockets of already rich studio and label executives. Also related is the fact that many of the people that publicly demonize file sharing are already obscenely rich (such as Lars Ulrich of Metallica), which is seen as ridiculously hypocritical.