The author, Lawrence Lessig, does not believe a war on piracy should exist. Lessig comments on how the war against piracy is unwinnable. He argues that there is a different approach to find the solution to an unwinnable war. His method is “to sue for peace, and then find ways to achieve without war the end that the war sought”. Lessig is a professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the School’s Center for Internet and Society. He has been a columnist for Wired, Red Herring, and Industry Standard. He is very much involved in the information society and internet society which gives him a lot of credibility. His credibility matters because he is not just some amateur writing about his thoughts, he really knows his stuff and enables us to step back and hear and think about what he has to say.
This article is about different cases pertaining to piracy or copyright infringement. One case is about a mother who witnesses her thirteen-month-old dancing to a Prince song. She, like most, thought of it as cute and decided to capture it on video. She wanted to share this adorable video with the rest of the family and friends. But she realized that the video was quite large, too large for an email. So she posted it on YouTube and sent the link to her friends and family and then they did the same. Sooner or later, the video was in the hands of a Universal employee. The video was shown to upper management and such and then lawyers were brought into to take the video off YouTube and then sent a letter the mother who made the video. Since Universal had the rights to the Prince song on the video, they were able to sue for copyright infringement. Towards the end of these cases, you wonder is it worth fighting over?
I believe, given the examples in Remix that which some and maybe most copyright infringement cases are not worth fighting for, especially the one involving a mother and her thirteen-month-old child. It just doesn’t make sense. If perhaps the song was used as bad publicity or even could be heard really well, then maybe there should be a case. But for Universal to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers and time to sue an eager and loving mother catching a hilarious moment on video is ridiculous!
In the book, Lessig comments on John Philip Sousa, a poplar composer, who disagreed with the copyright laws and feared that with the new technology, creating a culture or music would decline as would creativeness or the loss of amateurs. He feared that the connection between a people and music and culture would be less. “Sousa celebrated the Read/Write culture”. This meant that people would read or listen to representations of music, per se. And then would “create and re-create the culture around them”. Sousa feared the RW culture would be replaced with the RO (Read/Only) culture.
Sousa makes a good point. Our culture seemed to diminish to people who just listen to music and that’s it. No more creating something new or something new out of the old. This RO culture seemed lacking in so many ways. The practice of performing musical scores was going away. All these new technologies of the RO culture were out boasting each new thing; “from records to tapes to CDs, then from radio to television and VCRs to DVDs and the Internet”. This Ro culture supplied the US economy with success, but the amateur was said to be thinning. But was this a bad thing?
Remix.lessig.org/reviews.php –>
–> Some reviews point out that Lessig is trying to say that our copyright laws need to be reformed. Saying it is the only way to salvage professional and amateur art.
Lessig poses a great question; “Why is it weird to think that you need permission to quote”? He goes on to saying that writing is democratized meaning everyone has the right to write. Lessig mentions about other media like movies and painting. He mentions that Disney is one to complain about young children painting Mickey Mouse and a father using a clip of “Superman” in a home video should not be allowed unless he paid to use it. It all seems preposterous to me. Those examples seem to be like a quick way to a make a buck, or try several thousand bucks. Is it really necessary? I would say given principle, yes it is necessary. Once you let one person “steal” or use a copyrighted idea, then why not let everyone. Principle matters in that spectrum. But if you look at a lesser of the big picture, then maybe a huge company like Disney doesn’t have to sue every time someone wants to paint Mickey Mouse.
Lessig talks about the differences between cultures. “RO culture speaks of professionalism”. “RW culture speaks of professionalism and amateurism”. ”One emphasizes learning. The other emphasizes learning by speaking. One preserves integrity. The other teaches integrity. One emphasizes a hierarchy. The other hides the hierarchy”. The first being RO and the second being RW. Both are good for culture but Lessig argues that RW is needed more. This is where I agree with Lessig. An RW culture, or at least a culture more endowed with RW, seems more compelling, creative, successful, and connected.
