Both the movie and Lessig's book look into the future of music with a out dated copyright law.
Lessig's book he talks about how implementing a hybrid economy and how it would allow free content and also ease up on copyright laws. The band Lonely island began their music career by releasing tracks for free online. Saturday Night Live signed the band and also gave the members roles as actors and writers on the show. This shows a blend of commercial and sharing economy.
The movie also states the the "Past controls the future". You could argue that this basically means the Record label companies don't want to lose control of the music itself. They don't know what the future holds for a hybrid economy, record label companies would lose their tight grip on a lot of music. But, not letting a hybrid economy have a chance to flourish is a good example of the "past controlling the future".
The movie uses the example of Brazil being a remix culture, in Brazil remixing songs is very common. This culture views remixes as new original pieces of work. He uses this example because he feels it could be a possible future for the U.S.
Both the movie and the book emphasize the fact copyright laws are outdated because the no longer protects creativity but instead suppresses it.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
(DTC356 Blog 11) Sharing vs. Commercial Economy
Lawrence Lessig breaks economics down into two different categories, a Sharing economy and a Commercial economy.
Commercial: Lessig describes most of our day to day transactions as a Commercial economy. For example anything exchanging of objects are categorized as such. In our culture it is mostly trading money for another object, other examples could be trading a object for another object.
Sharing: This is the exchange of goods for the promise of doing something else in return. This economy is run by relationships and not monitory prices. An example of this could be wikipedia where by accessing and sharing data/content you are not expecting a price for your services, you are instead doing this because of other reasons possibly to help add to the vast collection.
Lessig brings both types of economics up because he feels that the internet is evolving into a shared economy. Sites like Amazon, Wikipedia, and Google are giving their applications with simply a shared economy or a combination of shared and commercial economy. Google is a site where it is simply a sharing economy; it asks nothing for the use of its products but in return for that usage Google keeps all the data you put into its search engines or other applications. Amazon uses a hybrid because it not only deals with a shared economy, but it uses that information to enhance the commercial economy aspect of its business. By browsing through its products, it is able to see what you like and build a pattern of items you like and uses that along with others "liked items" to build a suggested buying list for you. This creates a long tail effect and opens the market up and has been a large part of Amazons success. Lessig gives an example of why Amazon is superior to Barnes and Noble. To have a suggested selling much like Amazon, the store would have to be knowledgeable on hundreds upon hundreds of texts and also know your personality and the types of books you like. This is an example of what gives the web a upper hand on other forms of economy.
Commercial: Lessig describes most of our day to day transactions as a Commercial economy. For example anything exchanging of objects are categorized as such. In our culture it is mostly trading money for another object, other examples could be trading a object for another object.
Sharing: This is the exchange of goods for the promise of doing something else in return. This economy is run by relationships and not monitory prices. An example of this could be wikipedia where by accessing and sharing data/content you are not expecting a price for your services, you are instead doing this because of other reasons possibly to help add to the vast collection.
Lessig brings both types of economics up because he feels that the internet is evolving into a shared economy. Sites like Amazon, Wikipedia, and Google are giving their applications with simply a shared economy or a combination of shared and commercial economy. Google is a site where it is simply a sharing economy; it asks nothing for the use of its products but in return for that usage Google keeps all the data you put into its search engines or other applications. Amazon uses a hybrid because it not only deals with a shared economy, but it uses that information to enhance the commercial economy aspect of its business. By browsing through its products, it is able to see what you like and build a pattern of items you like and uses that along with others "liked items" to build a suggested buying list for you. This creates a long tail effect and opens the market up and has been a large part of Amazons success. Lessig gives an example of why Amazon is superior to Barnes and Noble. To have a suggested selling much like Amazon, the store would have to be knowledgeable on hundreds upon hundreds of texts and also know your personality and the types of books you like. This is an example of what gives the web a upper hand on other forms of economy.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
(DTC356 Blog 10) Remixing in the digital age
The video I chose was a remix on the Youtube user CopperCab which has been remixed in parody and comical fashion by the makers of South Park. I like this particular remix because it is instantly recognizable. Not only did I think it was funny, it was so funny in fact that, I showed a couple of my friends which helped make it so viral. A good remix must be note worthy and recognizable.
Three things really popped out at me when I watched this video that Lawrence Lessig had wrote about in his book Remix;
Firstly, Lessig talked about how sampling other peoples texts from essays, you don't have to ask permission. He also found it ironic that when sampling peoples music, video, or arts it is considered stealing. This is a clear example of not asking for permission to remix the video. In this case the CopperCab was not so offended by non-permission of use but instead more offended by the mockery that South Park had made of him, and wanted it removed for that reason.
Secondly, I noticed that some of the higher viewed youtube channels also contained advertisement. The use of advertisement is a good way to pay for the users to access content for free at all times. Lessig explains that the providers of content can use money from advertisement to provide free content to it's viewers at all times. Lessig also continued to explain that the future television will no longer be about waiting for your TV show to be broadcasted but instead for the viewer to be able to view the content when ever and where ever.
Finally, at the end of the video I noticed that it had suggestions for other videos that I may be interested in. Due to the content that I had previously viewed youtube had suggested of other things that I might want to view next. At the home screen of youtube it has a list of videos that you might want to see according to your view history, what's popular, and who you are subscribed to. Lessig gave a very similar example of suggested selling on Amazon.com.
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