Clay Shirky on these newfangled interwebs and how they are changing the world.
Posts tagged copyright
Lawrence Lessig never ceases to amaze me. After discovering and reading Lessig’s Free Culture in my final year of year of university, (2004, for anyone wondering) I knew his relevance would extend long into the future. The topics he tackled in Free Culture were visionary and foretold the necessity of redefining copyright law, lest all children be made into “criminals.”
Five years later, Dr. Lessig’s in-depth examination of intellectual property seems even more relevant as the forces of technological change continue their rapid transformation of our culture via the new mediums through which it is created and defined. And we’ve reached several breaking points. The extension of our centuries-old, “read-only,” top-down broadcasting, advertising supported media is now completely at odds with the growth of the Internet, the “read-write” culture and the democratization of the process of content creation. The legal and political battles being waged between the content industries and the public are really only a symptom of the real disease: the death of information scarcity. It would improper to raise the specter of “information scarcity” without pointing to Clay Shirky hammering on the plight of the “traditional” media: “For any business where scarcity of information was the principle selling point, that business is in trouble.“
But legal considerations aide, a recent Lessig talk I listened to pointed to an amazing example of how empowered the general public is to participate in the “read-write” web culture. Kutiman is a band that makes music without playing any instruments. They crowdsource their music by remixing performances that individuals have uploaded to YouTube – many that are very talented singers and musicians – to create something new, and dare I say, better. Tapping into the global talent pool, they created a series of masterpieces. Here are two of my favorites:
Kutiman – I’m New
Kutiman – Babylon Band
While I’ve made reference to Eclectic Method in previous posts I thought their new “Tarantino Mixtape” is a great example of why copyrighted content should not be exempted or excluded from this new “read-write” ecology in the web’s remix culture. As an aside, I cannot foresee Quentin’s feathers getting too ruffled about this mashup … movie studio & music industry lawyers on the other hand…
Eclectic Method – The Tarantino Mixtape
When any teenager with a $1000 computer can appropriate any video they like and mash it up with any other video and of piece of music they want without regard for copyright, licensing fees or royalties, the sheer volume of content produced will continue to overwhelm the guardians of the “read-only” content industry and ensure the growth and resilience of the “read-write” culture.
This is Eclectic Method’s latest, freshly-uploaded masterpiece of remixed culture packaged into a rich mashup. Rap, Rock, R&B, Hip Hop and House music and videos all thrown together to create something simultaneously old and new. Kanye rapping over Daft Punk and the Clapton riff as the sample fades into The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” is the highlight for me.
