Oct 04 2010
Week 6 Framing Questions
1. In Chapter 1, Lessig immediately discusses, on Pg. 25, the idea of society becoming more and more the consumers of culture, rather than the producers. In a previous response to one of my questions last week, I discussed how it seems that remixes of remixes are becoming more and more prevalent and newly generated content is becoming less and less. With this being said, I am beginning to rethink my response after reading this. However, when do consumers turn into producers by consuming material and generating new content using this material in an RW culture? Can this still be considered new and innovative, despite its take on an original version of something? For example, Can Gregg Michael Gillis of GirlTalk, who uses thousands of tracks from other artists to create his songs, truly be considered a contemporary artist or rather a radical imitator? Or is there something in examining whats out there and spinning new contextual meanings upon them that is beneficial in, and of, itself?
2. In the book, Lessig discusses the advantages of living in this digital age in regards to generations having more and more capabilities to connect to and put our content out in the world thanks to the Internet, whether it be media files or text files in the nature of blogs. However, in a consumer-based society, is this RW culture really becoming a RW culture? On Pg. 69, Lessig states that “individuals age 15 to 19 read for an average of 0.1 hour (7 minutes) per weekend day and spent 1.0 hour playing games or using a computer for leisure. It makes me question whether or not the Internet is truly helpful when it allows access to numerous gateways.While younger people are using it more and more for passive tendencies and recreational habits, such as video game playing and social networking, despite its incredible capacity as an informational engine, could this potentially be considered another form of learning in this digital age?
3. On Pg. 226, Lessig discusses the Creative Commons “Noncommercial License” as an alternative to the “All Rights Reserved” copyright and implies that this type of license encourages a sort of “gift economy”. As people’s motivates to get and give are put into question, in all reality, what is the likelihood of the gift economy will be as successful as that of he corporate economy? How has the digital age made it possible that content producers are willing to, under certain conditions, allow others users to freely access and use their content? And will people actually obey those wishes, considering many out there rarely obey strict copyright law?