Free Culture Reading Response

Because of the large scope of this week's reading, I have limited my summary and reflection to what I perceive to be the most important discussions in each of Lessig's sections, "Piracy" and "Property."

Lessig begins his first chapter, "Creators," with an illustration of the beginnings of Disney's sound cartoons. In late 1928, taking inspiration from The Jazz Singer's use of synchronized sound and offering a parody of Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr., Disney released Steamboat Willie, "the first widely distributed cartoon synchronized with sound" (Lessig 21). Here we can directly see Disney pulling from the surrounding culture and adding to it a creative work that is inspired in one capacity or another from an existing work. This type of "Walt Disney Creativity" (24) brings to mind Bakhtin's discussion of intertextuality in "The Problem of Speech Genres" and Lev Manovich's writings on remixing. Bakhtin writes, "the unique speech experience of each individual is shaped and developed in continuous and constant interaction with others' individual utterances... Our speech, that is, all our utterances (including creative works), is filled with others' words, varying degrees of otherness or varying degrees of 'our-own-ness,'..." (Bakhtin 89). All of our ideas, Bakhtin argues, come in "varying degrees" from some other source. By reshaping public domain fairy tales, parodying Steamboat Bill, Jr., and advancing the ideas of sound synchronized to motion first seen in The Jazz Singer, Disney effectively demonstrates this principle that Bakhtin describes.

Lessig gives readers this illustration to show how the public's (and the law's) perception of this borrowing and mutation of another's idea has changed over time. Manovich, in "Who is the Author? Sampling/Remixing/Open Source," writes about the development of remix, "a systematic re-working of a source" that typically involves music and a visual to convey a message of the creator's. How is this much different than Disney's Steamboat Willie or Fantasia? Today, derivative works written without permission are a violation of copyright law. In fact, as Lessig's section titled "Piracy" implies, unauthorized derivative works are considered to be a form of stealing. Yet, Lessig questions, what is the significance of taking an idea? (83). While he explicitly states that piracy in the from of downloading an artist's work without compensation is wrong and that individuals should be paid for their intellectual property, he clearly spells out the dangers of being a "permission culture" (xiv). At the conclusion of his second section, "Property," Lessig succinctly illustrates these dangers: "the opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check with a lawyer" (173), but throughout this first half of Free Culture, Lessig also hints at another broad danger.

Because the costs of contributing to today's culture have (in most cases) risen as an author wishing to remix must clear rights or a creator seeking to use material under the free use clause often must prove free use in the courts, the democracy of our culture has been threatened. No longer is the opportunity to create equally available to all participants; now, the right to participate comes at a high price. Lessig attributes much of the rising cost, intimidation tactics, and code-enforced uses (as opposed to law-enforced) to the increased consolidation of the media. With this consolidation, Lessig argues, democracy is again challenged. Even though Americans can influence policy through voting, our awareness of the issues is controlled by the media, which when in the hands of only a few, can easily choose which issues to highlight and how to depict them (167). Here is where one of Lessig's most important arguments surfaces: the issues of copyright and the Internet are not confined to the Internet. As illustrated by the Disney example, our culture’s view of derivative work has radically shifted in the last few decades, but this is not where the influence of the Internet ends, and Lessig cautions us to look beyond the digital world. As we continue to study how digital media has changed authorship and rhetoric, we would be wise to extend our discussion and analysis to include changes that digital technology, digital texts, and evolving copyright law have imposed on other areas of our culture, government, and society.