Remix Culture
Two interesting interrelated launches connected to Open Innovation this weekend.
First. The Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig published his new book “Remix – making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy” available free to download as PDF under the Creative Common license (www.bloomsburyacademic.com/remix.htm). In it he argues for the need to adjust intellectual property laws to the way the new generation uses technology in their way of expressing themselves and their opinions – by remixing, copying, blending, rewriting, adding to existing culture (music, film clips, texts etc) with own produced material (see for instance www.opensourcecinema.org).
In the act of writing, there is an accepted practice of “citing” – which means that one can borrow quotes from others without asking for permission as long as one puts references. This facilitates for instance the academic open science work to “stand on the shoulders of giants”, boosting ongoing creative conversations. The same approach would in the music and film industry call “piracy”, and there are even ID content algorithm scanning the internet for amateur infringements on such copyright “abuse”. It is clear that Lessig is against piracy in the purest form (distribution for pure consumption against the IP owners’ will). Ways of dealing with these issues must be developed (Spotify is an example of an alternative to the Pirate Bay). However, the solution is possibly not sole prohibition. A very nice presentation held by Lessig on the TED conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design) in March 2007 is available on Youtube. He ends the session by the following:
“We can not kill creativity, we can only criminalize it. We can not stop our kids to use it, we can only drive it underground. We can not make our kids passive, we can only make them “pirates”. And is that good?”
Second. On the 3rd April, the release of a collaborative, non-profit movie production took place on the web. The movie is called “the Hunt for Gollum”, and is a fan-produced movie inspired by Tolkien´s books and Peter Jackson´s movies “The Lord of the Rings”. The micro budget for filming was less than 3000£, and the director Chris Bouchard describes the work as a “labour of love”. Film effects, music, casting, costumes etc – all was made by enthusiasms, and in the disclaimer of the movie it says; “This work is produced solely for the personal, uncompensated enjoyment of ourselves and other Tolkien fans”.
A nice documentary of the production of the movie can be seen here.
This creative collaborative work would be suspiciously close to infringement of the intellectual property rights of New Line Cinema and Wignut films. However, seen in the past relations between Peter Jackson and the Tolkien fans, the risk of lawsuit is minimal. After all, Jackson has has recently closed a new deal with Stradella Road and Gordon Paddison, who successfully managed to involve the Tolkien fans into one of the most successful movies in history. This is perhaps just the continuation of that dialogue.
First. The Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig published his new book “Remix – making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy” available free to download as PDF under the Creative Common license (www.bloomsburyacademic.com/remix.htm). In it he argues for the need to adjust intellectual property laws to the way the new generation uses technology in their way of expressing themselves and their opinions – by remixing, copying, blending, rewriting, adding to existing culture (music, film clips, texts etc) with own produced material (see for instance www.opensourcecinema.org).
In the act of writing, there is an accepted practice of “citing” – which means that one can borrow quotes from others without asking for permission as long as one puts references. This facilitates for instance the academic open science work to “stand on the shoulders of giants”, boosting ongoing creative conversations. The same approach would in the music and film industry call “piracy”, and there are even ID content algorithm scanning the internet for amateur infringements on such copyright “abuse”. It is clear that Lessig is against piracy in the purest form (distribution for pure consumption against the IP owners’ will). Ways of dealing with these issues must be developed (Spotify is an example of an alternative to the Pirate Bay). However, the solution is possibly not sole prohibition. A very nice presentation held by Lessig on the TED conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design) in March 2007 is available on Youtube. He ends the session by the following:
“We can not kill creativity, we can only criminalize it. We can not stop our kids to use it, we can only drive it underground. We can not make our kids passive, we can only make them “pirates”. And is that good?”
Second. On the 3rd April, the release of a collaborative, non-profit movie production took place on the web. The movie is called “the Hunt for Gollum”, and is a fan-produced movie inspired by Tolkien´s books and Peter Jackson´s movies “The Lord of the Rings”. The micro budget for filming was less than 3000£, and the director Chris Bouchard describes the work as a “labour of love”. Film effects, music, casting, costumes etc – all was made by enthusiasms, and in the disclaimer of the movie it says; “This work is produced solely for the personal, uncompensated enjoyment of ourselves and other Tolkien fans”.
A nice documentary of the production of the movie can be seen here.
This creative collaborative work would be suspiciously close to infringement of the intellectual property rights of New Line Cinema and Wignut films. However, seen in the past relations between Peter Jackson and the Tolkien fans, the risk of lawsuit is minimal. After all, Jackson has has recently closed a new deal with Stradella Road and Gordon Paddison, who successfully managed to involve the Tolkien fans into one of the most successful movies in history. This is perhaps just the continuation of that dialogue.
Labels: Open Innovation
