Posts Tagged: amateurism

In light of Wednesday’s discussion, I wanted to create a response that continued addressing some of the questions brought up by my classmates (instead of just answering my three questions).

One of the most interesting aspects of Wednesday’s class was the idea of amateurism versus professionalism and looking at Lessig’s model for who should be paid and who should be copyrighted. I thought the chart brought up some interesting questions such as:

1. If you are an amateur, using this model, how will you ever make money?

2. What defines a professional versus amateur?

3. Using Lessig’s model will this influence the piracy of copyrighted materials?

I feel like Lessig’s model is a good start to further investigate the idea of copyright, payment and professional versus amateur; however, I also think that it’s not detailed enough (hence the questions above) to be put into action. I do appreciate the thought process though, and believe that this model is the first step in the right direction when it comes to redefining the laws of copyrighted materials.

Another issue brought up in class has to do with copyright laws and how as society we have outgrown the ones currently in place. With technology quickly evolving at a speed in which policymakers and researchers can’t keep up, the idea that copyright laws don’t fit our digital society makes since. Since copyright laws are outdated for current digital innovations, it then raises the question of piracy and how illegal is it really? During class discussion someone compared piracy to prohibition – making it illegal won’t stop it from happening and in fact may help grow the piracy business (as it did during the prohibition-era). I agree that copyright laws need to be adjusted based on current technology, but that will be a long road that we’ve just started traveling down. In the mean time, I think it’s important to educate artists about their rights and give them the opportunity to share and tag their work in ways that they deem most beneficial. Some artists like Radiohead or GirlTalk have released albums for free and asked only for donations or for fans to attend shows. I think the idea of creating a loyal fan-base who finds meaning in spending money on an artist will be more beneficial in the long-term rather than artists refusing to share their work unless they paid a price (it makes it seem more about the monetary issues rather than sharing their creative work).

Our class discussions brought up a lot of good points and issues to think about this week. I found it extremely helpful to have a more open forum where we were able to set the agenda and talk about the aspects that interested us most.

Jenkins talks about media convergence, or the overlap of content into several different forms of media, as a major corporate strategy of today.  How does the ever-evolving world of fan fiction affect this system, and how does it influence what new content is professionally produced?

Parodies and fan-made films are popping up everywhere. Based on this, as well as the fact that almost anyone can pick up the technology needed to produce a film, how do you think amateurism will affect the future of digital cinema and the film industry in general?

Lanier’s take on the “hive mind” that Web 2.0 and technology are creating is pretty unsettling and cynical. While his opinions are over-the-top, he makes some decent points throughout. One the stuck out for me was his stance on music, and how nothing original has been created since the 90s.  He claims that all we do now is steal from previous artists.  How accurate do you think his statement on music is, and how is amateurism affecting the production of music today?