Digital Artifacts

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Piracy

I just finished reading Chapters 4 and 5 of Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity and hooked. I may not have the time today but I definetly want to read the rest of the book. Time to time as I've copied pictures off the internet or now as I download video clips I have considered is this legal. In reading the chapters I can agree that much of what people do in terms of file sharing isn't legal but historical many of the media sharing of the past wasn't legal at the time but laws changed to keep up with advances. I agree with Lessig that we need to find a balance and I also agree that though much of the sharing isn't legal it isn't always harmful. I myself never used Napster but my brother did and he would play a song or two for me of a band I never heard and then I would buy the CD. Most recently I received an Ipod as a gift and a friend will send me a song and more often than not I will then buy the song or album on itunes so the sharing has benefited the record labels and the artist. I'm still buying music even when I can get it for free. Don't you?

Lessig had a good point about book sales and libraries. You can always borrow a book for free but just take a look around in the past few years at the spread of Barnes and Nobles and Borders and you'd have to agree that just because people can get something for free doesn't me they also won't buy it.

I'd have to point out too that though music, words, images and so forth are an individual's creative property i would think as an artist your purpose would go beyond your bank balance. Don't uou want to share your thoughts and ideas not always sell them. Or maybe I'm being too idealistic?

2 Comments:

Blogger Colin and/or Michele said...

The whole piracy/copyright issue is so important for us as educators to think very carefully about. It is tricky (look at the writer's strike currently underway). As someone who has the privilege of a fulltime job, I'm happy to give out my publications etc. for free, but I have a hunch that that might be different if I had to make a living from just my writing.

anyway, thought I'd post a link to ccMixter.org--a creative commons source for music that you're encouraged to use in your remixes!

November 8, 2007 at 11:19 PM  
Blogger Colin and/or Michele said...

Just came across the winner of today's "Most Ludicrous Copyright Claim" to do with the name and image of those ugly but compellingly attractive corncob towers in Chicago.

November 9, 2007 at 2:17 PM  

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