Archive for the ‘lawrence lessig’ Tag
Soda Jerk and Pirate Pops
The “internet piracy trial of the decade” began today with The Pirate Bay in the docks.
The four defendants face a fine of 1.2m kronor (£1,000) and two years in prison. They could leave 25m torrent-tracking users behind them if it all falls down.
Feels strange that this is happening now. Last week pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline announced their intentions to go open source. Offline business is starting to follow the online models of sharing.
I never can understand what makes creative copyright so different. Ideas are ideas, right? Maybe it’s time to pick up Lawrence Lessig again.
Or sit back and enjoy a Soda Jerk remix … while there’s still some in the bottle.
Pixel Pirate II Hollywood Trailer by Soda Jerk on YouTube.
Related:
– Soda Jerk interview on Create Digital Motion
– Understanding fair use copyright
– Remixing in… Microsoft Excel?
Crimpin’ Ain’t Easy
You might have heard the Mighty Boosh are taking legal action against the Honey Monster. Gag-worthy as that may be, I’ve come too late to the party.
So let’s hit the blood-spattered two-way street of copyright and get to the chase. Watching some old Boosh last night (coincidence) I was reminded we get the following in the Hitcher episode:
Only problem was, when I was a child, my thumb was tiny. Not just tiny like a single sugar puff, Disgusting! Even my own mother would reel back in horror, like an anaconda, ‘Aagh! What is it!? Get it out of here! It’s tiny! It’s horrible, it’s revolting!’
The Boosh namechecked Sugar Puffs. Sugar Puffs got crimping. So why are we staring at this sad puddle of spilt breakfast milk?
When the commercial world co-opts culture so superficially, it can be a dirty mix to swallow. But it happens all the time. What happened here was not a fair exchange.
The Boosh take Sugar Puffs’ name. But Sugar Puffs took the Boosh’s style.
If someone popular and funny namechecked you, you’d most likely be fine with it. But if after meeting someone you later discovered they’d copied your style, you’d be pretty pissed off.
On a blustery Saturday night down a dirty discotheque, several years after your first encounter, you bump into them again. They’ve started talking like (old) you. They’ve got your (old) rhythm, your (old) flow. Ugly.
If they’d just become a bit more like you, that could be good. It could be kinetic. It could even lead to some bouncy repartee. But they simply ripped. There was no dialogue.
When you bring it down to the personal, it all makes sense.
Lawrence Lessig can be breathtaking on this subject, and I’m looking forward to more of Matt Mason‘s thoughts.
You can be greedy for the verse, but you shouldn’t bite the style.