In Lessig’s Remix: How Creativity is Being Strangled by the Law, he dismisses the traditional view that various forms of technological communication would inevitably usurp the oral tradition. He asserts that the difference in how copyright law treats text and non-text based media is ultimately detrimental to the development of new and original, non-text based media. This is obvious when one considers the multitude of publishing platforms available in the current technological age. The internet has substantially compressed the time and space in which we live–things are no longer bought, sold, and traded as mandated by the first sale doctrine, but rather downloaded, copied, and shared as quickly as our browsers can deliver. Nowadays, anyone can upload an image to Imgur, share it on Reddit, and before the hour is out, (if it was popular enough) someone will have likely copied, modified, or redistributed the image for their own purposes. In the process, no one (not the authors or the sites hosting the images themselves) is bothering to cite the work of previous creators/contributors. This is evident in the phenomena of internet memes, particularly the creation of image macros. The fact that macros consist of merely a modified phrase or saying applied to a static image, which, through repetition of use, has established a certain context in which the text is to be placed, along with their relative ease of replication makes it particular successful in generating user participation on the consumer’s end. Lessig brings up the idea of commercial versus sharing economies, and continues to point out that the internet has essentially become a hybrid of both. Where it encourages shared-user involvement for all the aforementioned reasons (availability, accessibility, and relative association of produced texts), it has also become a battle ground for digital commerce, with many companies leveraging sharing platforms to encourage repeat users and establish a continued customer base. Amazon would not be what is today without its rating and review system, allowing its users to review items and vendors alike, creating a dependable level of trust between shoppers and veritable vendors. Without this sharing platform being implemented into its overall design, Amazon’s commercial platform may not have become the success that it is today. I would therefore agree in Lessig’s argument that copyright law needs to shift focus from the act of copying alone, and rather, towards the intended and inevitable uses of the copy. This will help to distinguish the defining differences between a copy and a remix, and provide the resources to demystify the methods by which these ‘remixes’ are made legitimate or legally acceptable. He likens the entire situation to the prohibition era, where we have essentially made criminals of our entire civilization by imposing rules which simply cannot and will not be adhered to by a generation of individuals living in the digital age. With this in mind, how might we consider our own roles in balancing the focus of copyright laws between protecting existing creators and encouraging new creators? How should we suppress or embrace activities that are the direct a result of immersion in a digital realm?
Relevant links:
https://soundcloud.com/hoodinternet - The HoodInternet is a Musical duo which “mashes” popular songs together. Is this an example of a remix, transformation, or just the equivalence of copying?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58249-2004Apr7.html - Lessig digresses on the more intricate complexities of the relationship between creators and consumers, and how to balance both of their needs and desires within the digital realm.
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