Remix

Remix by Lawrence Lessig

This book describes the changes in copyright law as technology and access to coprighted materials has grown over time. The book is introduced with personal accounts of the struggles of individuals with copyright infringement issues, whether it be for their own artistic creation, or the sharing of information on the internet and other similar devices. Lessig helps us to sympathize with individuals that have been mistreated by these laws, as well as shows us how our own lives are affected by such issues. The time, hassle, and not to mention, financial strain placed on these individuals, as well as the organizations that must carry these actions out, is ludacris.

Picture the meeting: four, maybe more, participants. Most of them lawyers, billing hundreds of dollars an hour. All of them wearing thousand-dollar suits, sitting around looking serious, drinking coffee brewed by an assistant, reading a memo drafted by a first-year associate about the various rights that had been violated by the pirate, Stephanie Lenz. After thirty minutes, maybe an hour, the executives come to their solemn decision. A meeting that cost Universal $10,000? $50,000? (when you count the value of the lawyers’ time and the time to prepare the legal materials); a meeting resolved to invoke the laws of Congress against a mother merely giddy with love for her thirteen-month-old.

The author demonstrates that there are more important issues than this, and that time and money could and should be allocated toward more important and severe infractions.

The progression of technology is never ending, and has come far in the past one hundred years. Therefore, laws have had to change as well to accommodate new forms of technology as well as the various new ways to access it. Culture has been drastically changed by this advancement, and advancement in technology has only promoted more competition to create “the next big thing”.

Digital technologies will thus shift the expectations surrounding access. Those changes will change other markets as well. Think of the iPod– perfectly integrating all forms of RO culture into a single device. That integration will increasingly lead us to see the device not as music player, or video player, but as a universal access point, facilitating simple access to whatever we want whenever we want. Many devices will compete to become this device. And that competition is certain to produce an extraordinarily efficient tool to facilitate, and meter, and police our access to a wide range of culture.

One topic of this reading of which I had no prior knowledge was RO and RW (Read Only and Read/Write) cultures. RO is defined as the “professional” side of culture, demanding respect. This type of culture is unchangeable, and must be accepted as is. On the other hand RW is the consumer friendly side of culture. It involves consumers and looks for their input, allowing individuals to contribute to culture and to learn from it. I find this interesting because I had never thought about culture in such a way. The static and dynamic, the unchangeable and ever-changing.

This excerpt helped me to learn more about culture, how it’s influenced by technology, and the ways in which it affects people on an individual basis. The ever changing creative forces are hindered by copyright laws, but this only stimulates more creative thinking in attempt to create something enjoyable, but legal.