Lawrence Lessig: Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (2008)

The author of Free Culture shows how we harm our childrenand almost anyone who creates, enjoys, or sells any art formwith a restrictive copyright system driven by corporate interests. Lessig reveals the solutions to this impasse offered by a collaborative yet profitable hybrid economy. Lawrence Lessig, the reigning authority on intellectual property in the Internet age, spotlights the newest and possibly the most harmful culture war waged against our kids and others who create and consume art. Americas copyright laws have ceased to perform their original, beneficial role: protecting artists creations while allowing them to build on previous creative works. In fact, our system now criminalizes those very actions. For many, new technologies have made it irresistible to flout these unreasonable and ultimately untenable laws. Some of todays most talented artists are felons, and so are our kids, who see no reason why they shouldnt do what their computers and the Web let them do, from burning a copyrighted CD for a friend to biting riffs from films, videos, songs, etc and making new art from them. Criminalizing our children and others is exactly what our society should not do, and Lessig shows how we can and must end this conflicta war as ill conceived and unwinnable as the war on drugs. By embracing read-write culture, which allows its users to create art as readily as they consume it, we can ensure that creators get the supportartistic, commercial, and ethicalthat they deserve and need. Indeed, we can already see glimmers of a new hybrid economy that combines the profit motives of traditional business with the sharing economy evident in such Web sites as Wikipedia and YouTube. The hybrid economy will become ever more prominent in every creative realmfrom news to musicand Lessig shows how we can and should use it to benefit those who make and consume culture. Remix is an urgent, eloquent plea to end a war that harms our children and other intrepid creative users of new technologies. It also offers an inspiring vision of the post-war world where enormous opportunities await those who view art as a resource to be shared openly rather than a commodity to be hoarded.

First published by Penguin Group USA, 2008
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, October 2008
Creative Commons BY-NC 3.0 Unported License
ISBN 9781408113479
352 pages

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Matt Mason: The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism (2008)

It started with punk. Hip-hop, rave, graffiti, and gaming took it to another level, and now modern technology has made the ideas and innovations of youth culture increasingly intimate and increasingly global at the same time.

In The Pirate’s Dilemma, VICE magazine’s Matt Mason — poised to become the Malcolm Gladwell of the iPod Generation — brings the exuberance of a passionate music fan and the technological savvy of an IT wizard to the task of sorting through the changes brought about by the interface of pop culture and innovation. He charts the rise of various youth movements — from pirate radio to remix culture — and tracks their ripple effect throughout larger society. Mason brings a passion and a breadth of intelligence to questions such as the following: How did a male model who messed with disco records in the 1970s influence the way Boeing designs airplanes? Who was the nun who invented dance music, and how is her influence undermining capitalism as we know it? Did three high school kids who remixed Nazis into Smurfs in the 1980s change the future of the video game industry? Can hip-hop really bring about world peace? Each chapter crystallizes the idea behind one of these fringe movements and shows how it combined with technology to subvert old hierarchies and empower the individual.

With great wit and insight — and a cast of characters that includes such icons as the Ramones, Andy Warhol, Madonna, Russell Simmons, and 50 Cent — Mason uncovers the trends that have transformed countercultural scenes into burgeoning global industries and movements, ultimately changing our way of life.

Publisher Free Press, a division of Simon and Schuster, New York, 2008.
ISBN 1416554017, 9781416554011
290 pages

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