The Time Is Shattering: A Mashup Of The WWE Entrance Theme Songs Belonging To Stone Cold Steve Austin & John Cena
John Cena's Theme Song: My Time Is Now
Steve Austin's Theme Song: Glass Shattering
In Lawrence Lessig’s Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, Lessig raises the question on if what we consider normal, ethical behavior has changed due to the ongoing war on piracy. Lessig details that today’s youth are very tech savvy, with file sharing becoming the fastest way to enable copyrighted material to pass through the masses instantaneously and the creation of music blends and mashups remixes where two copyrighted songs are blended to create an original piece of music. Both are illegal but the current war on piracy is leading to society changing their view on the laws that protect this material. Society today and Lessig now see this as a hindrance to the creative process. Issues of copyright and authorship have drastically changed in such a short amount of time, more specifically in the Internet age we live in.
Computers are so widespread in these times that now whoever owns one has a tool in which they can produce content that is indicative of the culture of the times. Lessig speaks positively on this, as he believes that this evolution in the can change us as a society from a read-only culture back to a read-write culture. Conversely, Lessig believes that since computer technologies has spread the reach of copyright law from not only producers of copyrighted material to now the consumers themselves, he concludes that we are restricted in the uses made available to us to better represent our culture. Lessig goes on to state that control over the uses on new technology doesn’t exist strictly at the legal/legislative level, something Lessig refers to as “east-coast code,” but it also exists in the “west-code code,” which Lessig explains as the programming that that allows for only certain behaviors or actions to take place. Lessig details that DRM, or Digital Rights Management have the power to edict restrictions or place bans on the use of media material that grossly overstep the restrictions of the law.
For example, music copyright law cannot restrict the amount of times an individual may listen to a certain song or album, or even from loaning a friend a physical copy of a CD; it limits the owner from republishing the CD onto another CD and making an illegal copy. DRM is communistic in the terms of how they restrict, and even though it is an evolution of copyright law, the overall war on piracy has shifted its focus entirely. It no longer focuses on the illegal replication and distribution of new media, it is not attempting to restrict the uses that we as consumers are trying to make of these new media sources. The remixes like the aforementioned mashups that promote amateur creativity is now being forced away. The focus has been shifted from controlling the initial problem of the illegal sale of music, text, and films to a broader one that now punishes the users of the illegal material more than the ones who distribute it in the first place.
This is a nice summary, Benson. Could you elaborate on any part of it? I'm especially interested in the new economy he proposes. How does current copyright law restrict creativity? What's the difference between a read-only culture and a read-write culture?
ReplyDeleteI like your note about how quickly issues of copyright and authorship are changing, and I wonder if, as attitudes about ownership of material changes, the attitudes of the authors will change as well. For example, if songwriters begin to compose with the *hope* that their work will be remixed, then will this problem in part go away? I remember when Weird Al Yankovic parodied Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the band saw that parody as a sign of their success.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that musicians in the next ten years will feel justified by remix? Would such a shift in values result in musicians becoming more comfortable with their work showing up in home movies or (more intentionally) works of art? It makes sense to me that such use of material could act as free advertising. Of course, then I have to wonder if artists would be pitted against the companies that produce and distribute their work, as it makes sense that those companies would want control over distribution rights.
I was thinking that same thing: if the distributors aren't playing along, then the artists have no power. I read that the Breaking Bad creator was happy about all the piracy of that show. He said it built an audience. That might not be true for a show that isn't an underdog.
ReplyDelete