I found Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture to be a very interesting book to read. My real fascination came from the fact that I'm a musician, and am always interested in reading about copyright laws and the history behind them.
I've found that the laws concerning copyrights are very complicated at times and difficult to get a grasp on, and sometimes it becomes tough to form a solid opinion as to exactly how you feel about certain aspects of the law.
I liked Lessig's section on Music on page 55, as well as his suggestion for creator compensation on page 106. A lot of my friends download music for free, in fact my one buddy JD regularly tells me about how he "hasn't bought a CD in years" because he downloads entire discographies. To some, this may seem like a smart move, and a great way to save money. But let me explain how this looks from the opposing side.
As a musician who is trying to promote myself independently, the whole process rests on my shoulders. No management team, no record label, no PR group, nothing; just me and the help and support of my family. Let's do a little math:
- First, we have supplies and tools to do my job (write and perform music.) Guitars, amplifiers, microphones, mic stands, PA system, cables, extension cords, guitar strings, picks, guitar straps, effects pedals, slides, pickups, and capos.
- Now let's add in the instructional DVDs and lessons that I've learned from of over the years.
- I began playing music at the age of 12, so factor in 10 years worth of time spent working on my music (I'm primarily self-taught.)
- Add in the hours of practice each week, as well as time spent working on new material, shaping and crafting songs, and generally working to improve.
- I released an album in October 2008, (yes, a shameless plug, but I have to promote myself, remember??) I had to pay for the time spent in the studio to record, as well as pay for the album to be printed and sealed, and then shipped out to me.
- Lastly, let's factor in the money spent on gas when I drive around to perform and promote my music.
Now imagine I wake up one day and find my album is up on Limewire, and everyone's downloading it for free because they don't want to pay for it.
I only tell you this to remind you that a copyright protection, in this case, is there for a reason. I think a lot of people see copyright protection as almost an inconvenience. My friend JD doesn't get why you would pay for a CD when you can just dowload it for free? CDs may be "expensive" in some people's eyes, but you have to remember that you're not paying for the plastic case, or the CD itself, or the lyric book. You're paying for the time, energy, and money spent by the musicians/songwriters who have dedicated their lives to creating music (or any art form, for that matter) for people's entertainment. Sure, I want to share my music with the world, but honestly, I don't want to starve in the process.
Now let's look at Lessig's point about building off of previous creations. He gives the impression throughout the book that if we begin to limit what people are allowed to "add on to" or "springboard" off of, that our free culture will suffer. I disagree. Again, let me relate this back to music.
I'm a big John Butler Trio fan. Now if I ripoff this song, Pickapart, and make some changes, but claim I've only built on what was already there, there's no way you're going to convince me that that's ok. Instead, I feel that the drive to avoid copyright infringement has pushed me to study JBT's style, mesh it with my other influences, and create something unique to myself. I have a few songs that are in the same style as JBT, but swiping specific melodies and progressions would be piracy in every sense of the word. Lessig's assertion that the concept of "property" is detrimental to growth in a free culture is a bit absurd, but again, I may feel this way because of my background in music. As my classmate Chris said in his post, " His theme is that if this occurs, 'Free Cultures are cultures that leave a great deal open for others to build upon; unfree, or permission, cultures leave much less. Ours was a free culture. It is becoming less so." (p. 30)'" There is plenty to build upon without ripping others off.
Let me ask you this; if I came to you and said, "Hey a friend of mine approached me and said he wanted to use the melodies and vocal patterns from my song Jet Plane for a documentary he's filming. He doesn't want to use my song, he just wants to create a song a lot like it and add in some piano parts, maybe a violin, and use a female lead singer." Would you say that's ok? Sure, he's adding on to what I did, but is the song not, at its core, still my creation?
Copyright protection is something I feel passionately about, and this book really made me get really passionate really quick!
