Free Culture: Lawrence Lessig
I love the idea of a free culture. I firmly believe that allowing people to copy and modify others works inspires competition and therefore creativity. As was said in this article without Grimm’s fairy tales there would be no Disney movies, yet the real beauty of the Disney movies is that they mimicked and changed these old tales. I think borrowing from other’s is inevitable and generally beneficial to art and culture. What do you guys think?
Pirates: Lawrence Lessig
It is pretty interesting that Radio, Record Companies, TV networks etc… were all built on a type of pirating. Napster is a great example of this. Without Napster creating its free software to trade music without paying the artists, the online stores like iTunes would probably not have been created. In a sense apple pirated the idea of iTunes from Napster. It seems like piracy leads to creativity. What does everyone else think?
5 comments:
i think that is very important to point out. I watched a documentary on the history of napster and its creator; from how it was developed to how quickly it spread through college campus', and the legal actions that followed. It is a cause and effect of how these programs, like itunes were created, however there are still ways to get around it which seems like a bit of a problem to the artist community. I agree that it is a form of stealing, but I also think the guidelines for sharing have become very harsh and we have not found a balance to a lot of the things that go behind the scenes on the internet and within its community. Many of these things developed out of college communities and as students we are almpst more adapted to the internet to find loop holes to the system, and i am still unsure as to how this balance could be created between pirating information and sharing.
Having a free culture and, where people can feel free to barrow characters and write a story that they will not directly profit from is, in my eyes, part of free speech. I understand that once it is written it enters into a whole new realm then if the story was told orally. But honestly is there any need to go after these fans who feel the need to try and add to a story line as they see fit?
this post makes me think of the current J.K. Rowling lawsuit against the owner of the lexicon online. he wanted to publish an encylopedia-esque type book about the Harry Potter series. I think that J.K. Rowling did have a right towards suing him and also towards winning, because those are her characters and her ideas. I don't think someone should be able to profit off of someone else's creativity.
When it comes down to music sharing/tv show sharing, i can see where it becomes a problem. sure people aren't making profit off of it for the most part, just sharing with friends, the original music creator + company are losing out on their profit. i can absolutely see why they would try to make harsher sharing laws. (i am not saying i'm a proponent of sharing laws, just saying i can see their side of the argument).
i, unlike you lucy, am unsure where to draw a line that creates balance. i guess the ultimate question is whether or not there can be a balance. in the end, someone will end up losing (music companies losing money, or college students paying more money for something that they could have gotten free).
I agree with scsorto, that in the end someone always seems to lose, especially when money is involved. I think that one of the issues with a capitalist society in general is that people compete all the time in an attempt to reach the top of society. I think that the internet helps to create a certain amount of balance, because for example in cases such as fan fiction the authors are getting no profit, but are creating multitudes of creative stories. I hope that the internet is left as a somewhat free space in the future because I think too much control would stifle creativity.
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