Response to Framing | Week 6 Lessing

After learning more about the copyright debate, I’m more and more convinced that we’ll never really have an answer to the question: How do we balance copyright protection and creativity?  I wonder who, in the end, is going to maintain control over all of this digital content. When will there ever be enough people to monitor the amount of digital content on the web? I would be interested in seeing the percentage (if this can even possibly be measured) of information on the web that’s monitored and the amount that’s not. I bet it’s something like 5% monitored and 95% unmonitored. That leads me to questions whether it’s worth it, in most cases, to stress so much over copyright or, on the flip side, if it’s worth attempting to produce something new based loosely on a previously created piece of work. I think there has to be a balance of the two.

One of my framing questions was about how there’s a very fleeting desire to obey copyright laws and how this may impact the next generation’s inclination to respect other laws. I need to do more research into this to get an accurate answer. I do wonder what the RW culture will be like when they’re older adults (with a greater understanding of business economics). The law is important, but is going after 11 year-olds who download music really the answer and a good teaching tool? It certainly didn’t stop everyone. I’m under the notion that the younger generation has been de-synthesised from obeying the law. On the other hand, I do wonder how many kids know that what they’re doing is illegal in the first place.

In class, it was interesting to hear that the producers of the Hurt Locker (such a good movie) went after and sued a lot of people. I’m surprised I didn’t hear about this and even more surprised by the time, money, and effort that went into tracking these people down. What exactly are the costs of pursuing people who download free movies and music?

We’ve grown up with the mentality that once we own something, we are allowed to share it. We’re taught this at a very young age, and we’re also taught to share. I can just imagine a conversation among 3 year-olds of the next century. “Here, I’ll share my toy truck with you,” says Kid A. “I don’t know. I really want to play with it, but do I have the right? So before I accept this gift, do you have permission to share the toy? Did you create it?” says Kid B.  “No, but my Mom bought it, so technically I believe I own it,” says Kid A. “I’m not sure. My friend JoJo said his pre-school buddy Sammy was sued by Toyco for sharing his trucks. Maybe we should get permission first.” I know this is an extreme example, but I just saw a video of a 2 year-old playing with an i-Pad. We need to instill this permission/sharing hoopla (once we have it figured out) with kids at young age so they don’t end up in a lawsuit as a pre-teen.