On the other hand, I can understand both sides of the coin on some other issues. The M.L.F. versus Disney comes to mind. I do personally believe that what the M.L.F. was doing is fine. However, if I was Disney I would be pissed. Mickey is a character that they worked hard to cultivate and make popular, and his appearance on anything can potentially generate a good deal of revenue.
On to the reading.
Connection 1 - The commercial economy. The movie covers a lot of this. The recording industry for example. They are trying their damnedest to preserve the traditional commercial economy. They don't like remixing. They view it as copyright infringement. They are purely commercially motivated and don't give a rat's patootie about contributing to culture.
Connection 2 - Hybrid economy. Radiohead's release of Rainbows is the embodiment of the hybrid idea. In 2007 they broke away from their record label EMI and released the record online themselves. They allowed people to decide how much the record was worth to them, and pay accordingly. I can remember my room mate at the time, a huge Radiohead fan, being incredibly excited about this. He was also very poor. On the release date he wasn't able to pay (he did purchase the album on vinyl later though) but he was still able to download it legally. This is the hybrid economy at work.
Connection 3 - Collaboration spaces. The film itself participates in a collaboration space, Opensourcecinema.org, which unfortunately doesn't seem to exist anymore. They author uploaded all of the footage from the movie and invited users to remix it as they saw fit. Pretty freaking cool idea if you ask me. I was really hoping to try this but, like I mentioned before, the site seems to have disappeared.
Another thing I want to mention is the part in the book about the Harry Potter fans fighting back against the goons at Warner. This is pretty freaking cool. It also parallels one of my favorite snippets in the movie. Somewhere around the 1 hour mark, and a man states that we really have the power here. If we want to change things, we need to stop buying from the people we don't support. This is was the Potter fans did, they organized a large boycott and fought back against what I view as an oppressive corporation. Neat stuff for sure.
I find also find those kinds of movements interesting in how powerful they are. While Warner still doesn't completely understand what a value their fans' remixing has, it is a start. I wouldn't be surprised if the author of the movie was forced to take it down due to his copyright infringement. In regards to artists allowing fans to pay what they feel is appropriate is good but it would probably be better to use Lessig's idea of making P2P networks legal and just have an overall fee. It would be another way to cut record labels out of the picture.
ReplyDeleteI really like the connection you made with the hybrid community, Radiohead was a great example of creators putting their work out there for the public to hear and comment on. There's not as much feedback on a physical album.
ReplyDeleteThe fight of Harry Potter fans is such an international movement that it is surely inspiring for smaller fighters to gain inspiration and hope from as they try to make corporations see the logic behind their actions (and creations).
@Tatiana's comment, i also thought using radiohead as an example of hybridity was great. I was unaware of bands releasing albums for free online, and I think this is a great step towards fighting copyright laws. In this digital age people/ music fans know how to get music for free in numerous ways. Artists and labels need to adapt to our intelligence and desire to obtain things for free, why would we want to throw our money at corporations and record labels when we can contribute creative content directly to our favorite bands?
ReplyDeleteGoing beyond simply watching, understanding, and becoming frustrated with the current state of copyright law, what is the next step? I think that pushing for your point #2 is a good way to go, and we should consider how releasing content for the masses can benefit everyone. Radiohead did well to release their music as they did, and so maybe we should all tell ourselves to forgo the pursuit of endless wealth and, when given the opportunity, give something of value away for free?
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