In the book Free Culture, Lawrence Lessig discusses the effect that copyrighting has on creativity and cultural production.  He explains that in the good old days there was a kind of uneasy balance between the rights of the creator to protect their work and those of the public to experience it.  People were more able to build upon the work of others to create bigger and better things.  However with cases such as Eldred v. Ashcroft copyright protection can be extended far longer than before. The case challenged the constitutionality of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA).  The act itself proposed to extended the existing copyright terms of the Copyright Act of 1976 by 20 years.  However, depending on the date that the work was created it could be extended by 95 years, or the life of the author plus 70 years.  This would affected both new and existing works.  The Rehnquist Court ruled 7-2 that the CTEA was constitutional.  When this law first came out there were numerous ways for the public to get around copyright laws.  However now because technology has changed the way we share information the effects of this law are much more prevalent.  The book goes on to talk about the heavy fines that are imposed on those who break the CTEA and download copyrighted material.  I tend to agree with Lessig on this point, and many others, that the extent of the fines are absurd. 

Because copyright laws are becoming more and more stringent Lessig is concerned that creativity will be stifled or at least people will not be able to use technological advances to their full advantage when creating.  And I think that he is probably right.  I am not promoting the elimination of all copyright laws, and of course neither is he, but I do think that everything is a trade off.  As a consumer, I would love to rewind time to the days of downloading free music on Nabster and Kazza. However as a wanta be author and someone who knows how little most people actually make from their work, I enjoy the peace of mind that my work will not be “stolen”.   There has to be some level of balance between having everything be public where the creator can make little to no profit off of their work and having to pay exorbitant fees such as for a 5 second clip of a popular TV show. 

Lessig offers several suggestions for how to create more balance between the public and private domain such as shorter copyright terms and registration requirements.  Personally, I tend to think that these are good ideas.  If you create something and you want it protected than great but if you don’t have it protected than it is free to enter the public domain.  I believe that there is a fine line between using someone’s work as inspiration and stealing it and that that line is difficult to define, although many have tried.  But I agree that art, no matter the form, is a culmination of many people’s works.  We build upon, change, and adapt to create something that is our own.  Without the opportunity to access and learn from the works of others, I think that creativity will indeed be hampered.