Internet Studies Class

Written by Alysa

Lawrence Lessig in his book, Free Culture, asserts that “of all the creative work produced by humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has continuing commercial value” (225). He goes on to further state that the copyrights of the tiney fraction of works that are still “profitable” are the most benefited by an extended copyright. Copyright law, however, doesn’t just extend the law for those select few—when you extend the copyright the law for some you extend it for all. Therefore, obscure authors or works that have ceased to be profitable are actually hurt, because the interest in the works of the author become unknown and unavailable. This inhibition and subsequent shrinking of the public domain means that the potential creativity of others to build upon the works is thwarted.

The text of the past is in danger of becoming extict, as new technology crosses class, race, language, and residential boundaries. The same way in which hand-written letters succombed to emails which allowed easy access to multimedia functions such as links, pictures, and music—text based articles and books shall become antiquated and only a means of “archiving” material. I predict that lobbyists will continue to successfully raise copyright law, however, as they do a new sub-culture will emerge that will utilize public domain works and create their own works and make them widely available. It will be through this movement away from “traditional” concepts of text based literature that the individual versus the publishing company will gain a considerable amount of power.

The challenge will no longer be how to read the material that resides forever in the clutches of copyright. It will revolve around successfully searching through the accumulating mass of “individual based” works. The search for works of individual interest will start. Utube helped to show that people unaffiliated with major production companies could produce interesting works. In fact, a community of “film critics” emerged from Utube to help elevate the awareness (and consequently the status) of certain filmmakers. Therefore, the focus was shifted back to the creativity of the artist.

Lessig believes that copyright is essential to spark creativity, but that the continual extension of the act hinders further creativity. I agree with Lessig, but I have to believe that databases, such as the Open Content Alliance and The Online Books Page will help to keep public domain works within the access of many, and at the same time build upon those works by offering multimedia links, summaries, biographies, and pictures that build upon the text to enhance the relevance of the text. I will concede that the loss of the authors not in public domain will be felt, however, if the focus of the American consumer shifts from buying the works of “well-known” authors towards unknown authors then then I believe it will be become essential for authors to begin to feature “read-only, non-printable” full text online versions of their work to draw upon a broader readership.

It is my belieft that in the next fifty years the way in which we interact with text will change dramatically. I believe that books will cease to be used for reference—as the expidency of the internet and the increased readership—and the internet will encourage (if not force) authors to put their work online.

Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture. New York: The Penguin Press, 2004.

The Online Books Page.

The Open Content Alliance.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 at 12:01 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.