{"id":44,"date":"2007-02-19T22:26:55","date_gmt":"2007-02-20T03:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/?p=44"},"modified":"2007-02-20T06:49:51","modified_gmt":"2007-02-20T11:49:51","slug":"free-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/2007\/02\/19\/free-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you haven’t watched\/listened to Lawerence Lessig<\/a>, here is a presentation that is worth your time.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/randomfoo.net\/oscon\/2002\/lessig\/free_culture.swf<\/a>\u00a0 (Flash)<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.oreillynet.com\/pub\/a\/policy\/2002\/08\/15\/lessig.html<\/a>\u00a0 (HTML)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The presentation can be summed up in the refrain of a song that he wrote for the presentation.<\/p>\n

Creativity and innovation always builds on the past.
\nThe past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it.
\nFree societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past.
\nOurs is less and less a free society.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a presentation about copyright and how its evolution in our country can stifle creativity.\u00a0 He starts with the writings of Shakespeare and goes all the way to present day copyright law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most people don’t realize that the founding fathers\u00a0thought copyright\u00a0should last\u00a014 years.\u00a0 Ideas from existing works could be taken and built upon (derivative works) without legal ramifications.\u00a0 Now copyright protection lasts almost 100 years and it’s illegal to read\u00a0many\u00a0books outloud in public.<\/p>\n

The most compelling part of the presentation deals with Walt Disney and how he took stories that were out of copyright (older works) or parodies and created animated movies.\u00a0 Think of shows like Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Pinnochio and Sleeping Beauty.\u00a0 All of these stories were derivative works.\u00a0 They were stories that already existed.\u00a0 Many were fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm<\/a>.\u00a0 Even Mickey Mouse was parrotted after Steamboat Bill in the same year that Steamboat Bill<\/a> was released in theaters.\u00a0\u00a0Consider the lead character in Pirates of the Caribbean – Jack Sparrow.\u00a0 If someone were to create a parody animated figure of Captain Jack and release a film in 2007 starring that parody character,\u00a0they would be sued into oblivion.\u00a0\u00a0This very practice (parodying, not suing) made Disney the empire that it is today.<\/p>\n

The most powerful slide about the current state of copyright:<\/p>\n

“No one can do to the Disney Corporation what Walt Disney did to the Brothers Grimm.”<\/p>\n

Lessig goes on to talk about how copyright is blocking all kinds of innovative\u00a0“fair use”\u00a0with examples from Aibo<\/a> to a couple of seconds of Homer Simpson<\/a> in the background of an educational film.\u00a0 This presentation is an eye-opener about the current “police” state of copyright law in America.\u00a0 It is worth a listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you haven’t watched\/listened to Lawerence Lessig, here is a presentation that is worth your time. http:\/\/randomfoo.net\/oscon\/2002\/lessig\/free_culture.swf\u00a0 (Flash) http:\/\/www.oreillynet.com\/pub\/a\/policy\/2002\/08\/15\/lessig.html\u00a0 (HTML) The presentation can be summed up in the refrain of a song that he wrote for the presentation. Creativity and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[339,336],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edtech","tag-copyright","tag-edtech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustyetc.com\/trustyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}