Digital media is everywhere. With it, endless files of data including word documents, pictures, music, videos and much, much more. Along with this seemingly endless amount of files comes the glorious thing that all students love to hear about year after year in their writing courses. Copyrighting, plagiarism, the whole shebang. Anyone with a computer can figure out how to download music, movies and more illegally and without paying for it. How far does the copyrighting line go though, and where can we draw it?
Larry Lessig, a professor at Harvard, does a phenomenal job at explaining the issue of copyrighting in today's world.
I found this video extremely interesting overall. There's no denying that the digital age has brought about a new generation of artists, the mixers, if you will. I thoroughly enjoyed the mash-up creations he used for examples in his presentation. It is truly remarkable what the younger and fluent generation of digital natives can do with technology these days.
Not everything they are doing however can be thought of as creative and good. Downloading music illegally is a huge issue in the world. Before viewing DJ Spooky voice his opinion on the issue, I always thought it was a truly negative action that deprived countless artists of much earned money. After hearing his opinion though, I thought again:
It's the "branding" and "free marketing" aspects that made me reconsider everything. I'm not saying I'm going to go download all of my music illegally, so to speak. It the fact that artists like DJ Spooky can take pride in kids essentially "stealing" his creations because it's a new way of getting his name out there.
When my friends burn me CDs, I often have a few songs on each disc that I really connect with. I often go look up the artist's name, and sometime I even go further if I'm really impressed and buy some of their songs. It's this event that some artists, like DJ Spooky, really smile at.
With that, it hit me that perhaps our culture is changing to the point where it's actually not all about the money. People like Spooky really, truly take pride in people listening to their music and sharing it with people who don't buy it just because it's a form of free advertising and "branding." In a sense, it's all about the art, and creating as he says, a "rich and robust...narrative." I found this cool, personally.
I mean sure, DJ Spooky may also be loaded to the point where he couldn't care less about making another 99 cents on iTunes, but it still made me think again about copyrighting and stealing music from its producer.
Same goes for videos, like the ones on Lessig's presentation. People make those to entertain others, to share with the world, or to get their names out there. Mainly, I believe it's the first two reasons, or so I hope. The fact that we live in such a sharing culture now is also something to be proud of.
I myself share a ton of online videos through Facebook and e-mail. If a friend is having a rough day, I'll share some humorous little clip on their wall and they usually appreciate it! Or if I find something, yes, inspiring. Here's one that I absolutely love to leave you with (yay sharing!):
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