Outline of Remix Chapters 1-5

Introduction

• In the introduction to Remix, Lessig gives us several examples of copyright's ability to regulate everything from home movies to art installations. My favorite is his example of Stephanie Lenz's 18 month-old dancing to a distorted "Let's go Crazy" by Prince in the background. Lessig gives us these ridiculous examples of the over regulation of copyright in order to set up the theme of Remix: collateral damage. Is the current copyright law, which was written for an analog society, hindering our ability to grow and create in a democratic society? But, most importantly, making a new generation into criminals?

Chapter 1: CULTURES OF OUR PAST

• Copyright law first existed when there were no real ways to copy the tokens save performance and sheet music. However in 1906, when Sousa fought for more coverage of copyright, he was doing so in order for artists to benefit from the production of copies for commercial profit, not to stop ordinary citizens from continuing folk practices of RW culture. His main concern was the degradation of culture with the influx of new technologies or those damn “infernal machines.”

RW Culture Versus RO Culture

• RO culture has taken over popular culture from RW through the introduction of technologies and the competition between the new technologies to provide the best quality tokens. First with the piano player rolls, to phonographs, record players, radio (AM, then FM), VCR, tape players, CDs, DVD’s, etc.

• Popular culture becoming professionalized allowed access to a wide range of culture, produced a valuable economy and defined what we know as pop culture today.

Limits in Regulation

• Whereas Sousa argued for more copyright regulation, he knew that there was/is a limit. He thought amateur culture needed to be left unregulated by law because of the importance of amateur creativity in a RW society.

Chapter 2: CULTURES OF OUR FUTURE

• Lessig believes that both RO and RW cultures can survive and flourish in a “hybrid” economy.

Chapter 3: RO, EXTENDED

• When RO culture first emerged, all of its tokens were analog. It was extremely hard to copy them, and when the technology became available to do so, copies were inferior to the original. Do any of you remember making mixed tapes and if you weren’t quiet enough, you could hear background noise? The tapes on cassettes or VHS would eventually wear out the more often you played them or get completely ruined if your tape deck or VHS player decided to eat it.

Nature Remade

• Digital technology changed the nature of the RO tokens and the availability of digital technology made it possible to RW tokens again. This caused the content industry to come up with strategies to protect businesses from digital technologies. In 1997 and 98, new laws were designed to extend the life of copyright work, strengthen criminal penalties and punish the use of technology that tried to circumvent digital locks placed on digital content. The law cracked down on entities such as Napster first, then extended to ordinary citizens, even children.

Remaking Nature

• In 2003, iTunes began selling music with digital rights management software encoded in each file. This helped to appease the record industries a bit and Rhapsody and Napster followed suit. eMusic was the first to sell content without DRM software. Due to Internet and new technologies, culture is widely accessible and the costs of inventory dropping, allows more niche communities and tastes to flourish, i.e. Chris Anderson’s “longtail.”
  

Recoding Us

• With digital technology, we no longer have to conform to anyone else’s schedule; we can consume what we want, when we want it. We want access at any moment, hence the popularity of the iPhone. Lessig predicts that many devices will continue to compete to be the best in this respect, furthering technological advances in this area.

• Advertising also needs to change in order to follow digital trends. Whereas ads were shown, interrupting television programs every 18 minutes or so, the digital culture gives us an opportunity to change the way marketing and advertising is carried out. He gives he example of Amazon and its ability to monitor your purchases and searches in order to give you very specific suggestions to what they have gathered from you yourself. He suggests that this is preferable to the flip side of having to sit through commercials for advertisements in no way interesting you, think you’re a dude and a Tampax commercial comes on or you’re a lesbian sitting through a Viagra commercial.

Chapter 4: RW, REVIVED

Lessig points out that remix is something as simple as using a quote to write an essay and using old cases to make a point in a brief. If we as students had to ask for permission to quote every source, we’d get nowhere.
Writing Beyond Words

• Is quoting from a source such as film, TV or music any different than quoting from a text? Because technology makes it possible for just about anyone to sample from these tokens and include them in their own digital work, shouldn’t these forms of quoting be democratized just as text has?

• Here's Girl Talk for those of you unfamiliar.
  

Remixed Text

• The proliferation of blogs gave ordinary people a venue to be heard and other ordinary people a way to comment and interact by tagging and rating blogs. Aggregators like Technorati allow us to see in real time the most popular blogs on the Net. Even if a blog is bad, it still has democratic value.

Remixed Media

• In Lessig’s opinion, a mix of images and sounds makes its point far more powerfully than and 800 word essay in the New York Times because the tokens used to remix images, film, and music have emotional meaning to us. In our visual culture, it’s hard to disagree with him.

The Significance of Remix

• Remix builds community with remixers and it is a valuable tool for education. Just like the kids writing for the “Daily Prophet,” remix artists learn more from the act of doing and participating and getting constructive feedback, then the individualized hierarchy of most classroom based learning.

• This video clip of McCain being Barack Rolled stresses the significance of community. There are several instances on YouTube of fake videos, ones where you think you are about to watch one thing, but it suddenly cuts to Rick Astley singing Never Going to Give You Up. Most people wouldn't get the joke, this video is more about showing off.

Chapter 5: CULTURES COMPARED

Differences in Value-and “Values”

• RO culture is made by professionals to be consumed only. RW is amateur and asks more of the audience, learning by practicing.

Differences in Value (As in $)

• RW also has economic value. Lessig talks about people buying content for their iPods. He also says that the most valuable contribution to our economy comes from connectivity, not content.

Differences in Value (as in “Is it any good?”)

• Lessig agrees that a lot of remix is crap, but thinks that value also comes from the participation and practice of rewriting culture.

Differences in Law (Is it Allowed)

• The current copyright law was written before the advent of digital technologies. The technology is the only thing that has changed, but since the architecture of copyright law is such that it includes any copy made, virtually all of us are guilty of breaking copyright law now. A new form of copyright law should be enacted to reflect our changing society, something like Creative Commons

• I recently began following Lessig on Twitter and found out that there is currently a case against Shepard Fairey for his possible use of an image by the AP.

Lessons About Cultures

• Both cultures are important and valuable; the current law needs to be changed in order to be up to date with current technology.

Questions:

Are remix artists such as Girl Talk making valuable contributions to our society or merely piggy backing on the success of others?

Do you agree with Lessig that the negatives caused by our current copyright laws outweigh the benefits?

Is the democratic act of blogging worth all of the “crap” that is stacking up on the Internet?
Should RW based learning be incorporated into our schools?

What are your thoughts on the future of advertising as suggested by Lessig’s Amazon example? Does it go too far?

Do you think the issues of copyright and “free use” would be different now if Congress would have decriminalized P2P file sharing by enacting various licensing proposals?

Do you think Creative Commons is the way to go?