1/18/12

This blog post is dedicated to the movement that Wikipedia, Google as well as all other websites and individuals fighting against the PIPA and SOPA bills trying to get passed today.

My commentary will focus mainly on Part one of Lawrence Lessig’s Remix novel, however it will take into account the importance of today and what individuals can do to speak their minds about this issue on foreign piracy bills which aim to crack down on foreign websites that traffic in pirated materials such as videos, music and other goods. This blackout has stirred up the internet world as it very well should because these bills will impact every internet user out there. For good or bad? I am actually not entirely sure because I don’t know enough information on it truthfully. But if you search PIPA, SOPA, Remix Culture, etc. The internet will provide.

Lawrence Lessig is currently a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Lessig has become famous for his studies and influence in the 21st century on law and technology, especially as it affects copyright. He is an individual who is taking action on the issues of the boundaries on copyright law within the digital age and influencing those who wish to try and understand the progressive, technologically-savvy world we live in today and what complications follow. In part one of his novel, Remix, Lessig intertwines both the past and the present to create a “hybrid economy” where commercial business can actually leverage value and reap benefits from sharing economies. A hybrid economy is what Lessig believes the future should be, which will encourage a balance and profit for commerce and community. But the problem, Lessig states, is that now there are two extremes:

“One side builds new technologies, such as one recently announced that one will enable them to automatically take down from sites like YouTube any content that has any copyrighted content in it, whether or not there’s a judgement of fair use that might be applied to the use of that content…. (Blogger’s Note: This is already in place now, 1/18/12)

The other, “among our kids, there’s a growing copyright abolitionism, a generation that rejects the very notion of what copyright is supposed to do, rejects copyright and believe that the law is nothing more than an ass to be ignored and to be fought at every opportunity possible.” -Lawrence Lessig, TEDTalk 2007

While we are separating ourselves from one another into two extremes, our developing (technological) world is at a standstill. The government now is trying to fix this situation, but as Lessig says, “the law has not greeted this [remix] revival with very much common sense. Instead the architecture of copyright law and the architecture of digital technologies, as they interact, have produced the presumption that these activities are illegal.” In my opinion I agree with Lessig in his TEDtalk that the government, as well as artists, creators and individuals need to embrace the opportunity for a shared environment and community. In no way am I supporting pirated material and rejecting copyright and the advantages it brings, but like Lawrence Lessig says we need to “relearn the lesson” in which we continue to share ideas without exploiting them, using them solely for illegal profit or restricting them and instead grow and understand what it is that technology can do. I plan to try and understand both sides more, but hopefully this commentary can be yet another addition to sparking conversation.

Food for thought: “What is Original Creativity?” Thoughts?

This is also a video I watched in my sociology class that focuses on the Remix Music Mash-up culture. Lawrence Lessig and Girltalk are included: RIP: A Remix Manifesto