Creativity in Culture Today

After watching Larry Lessig's lecture on modern day creativity and the battle between the bootleggers and copywriters... well, I really don't have much to say about it at all. I'm kind of confused. I thought that there were good points to his speech as I was watching it, but now that it is over, I don't know what to do with any of the information he offered. I'm still not convinced that it is wrong for people to bicker about who owns what piece of media. It seems natural to me. And quite frankly, I don't really see it as a problem. Lessig seems to have some kind of personal obsession with finding a cure to a problem that I think only he may feel is a problem worth obsessing over. If he actually went into detail about what the middle ground he spoke of was, maybe I would be able to sympathize more with his argument. But he didn't; nor did he offer any sort of closure as to how we are supposed to handle "our kids" becoming pirates forced underground. What he did do, is complain. He pointed out many ways he thought modern society was repeating past mistakes and in one way or another acting foolish or taking part in silly games. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe the average person, or even my more rested self, can decipher his list of complaints and define a possible solution. But at this point, all I can tell is that Lessig thinks that people need to end what he thinks is a childish war over copyright because... I don't even know why. I don't even know that he does.

The lecture, overall, was quite interesting. Lessig is a good speaker, and his presentation made him seem very knowledgeable. I just don't really get what it is I'm supposed to do with the information. If I want to mix up some anime to a Prince tune, I'm gonna do it! And I'm gonna be glad that there are places where I can post the abomination of a video to show all of my web-linked friends when its done. If I was Prince, on the other hand, or owned rights to a song of his that had been edited to an anime music video, I may be a little ticked off. It's the same complex that happens when you find out that you have a termite infestation. You get a little pissed that some termites are abusing your things for their own purposes. But the termites just want wood, and your house is some perfect wood for them to do their termite business in. The only difference is that the music industry hasn't really come up with a pest control service yet. But it doesn't seem like Lessig wants pest control. He, "as a good liberal," seems to want a happy medium where termites could maybe be allowed to play around in the older wood or something. Like a corner in the closet or something. But who knows, he never really said.

Its typeography in motion and poetry with animation.. it's some damn gooood inspiration!

A friend of mine posted this to facebook. After watching it, I wanted to post it to my facebook and tell everyone to watch it. But I didn't want to steal his status-post-thunder... So here you go! This is one of the coolest videos I've seen in.... forever.

If someone besides Andrea reads this, watch the credits to get an idea of the man power something like this takes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U&feature=player_embedded