Thoughts From How Not What

It’s a familiar story – the music company vs. the downloading teenager.

There’s more to it.

There is the culture of creativity and the constraints that copyright can put on it. There is the difference between amateur and professional. There is the need to ensure that artists receive money so they can still create art.

Lawrence Lessig tries to come up with a way to move past the lawyer vs. the passionate fan when he takes on the clash between the read-only, commercial and professional culture and the read/write, sharing and audience participation culture in his book Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy.

He proposes that solutions lie with those that take advantages of aspects of each side of the dichotomy – either commercial ventures that leverage value from sharing or sharing ventures that build a commercial structure to support their sharing aims.

In other words, he’s looking for an integrative solution to satisfy a complex system.

The story of the conflict itself was interesting, yet what most caught my eye about the book was not what he said but how he said it.

He let the loose ends of the system show.

Remix‘s table of contents shows a logical progression of ideas and the text fulfills that promise. However, it simultaneously spills over with stories and interconnections and potential implications because Lessig is trying to include some of the subtleties of the way we think. Some readers might consider these unnecessary words, but in context they are an acknowledgement that the issue is not neat and tidy.

You could see how the structure influenced the debate.

Since Lessig allows the complexity to show through, you can get how the words and concepts he uses set up the discussion. Some terms are in popular usage but he chose how to pull them together. Some basic concepts could have been identified differently by someone else. Of course, any writer or speaker preparing to persuade will select a framework and build a mental model to work within. I just found it more obvious here than in some books.

Simple things became important when categorized.

He presents examples of combinations or art and commerce that seem simple at first glance, such a putting ads on a site. They become “hybrid solutions” not only by what is actually going on, but because he names the overarching concept and gathers them up into this grouping.

Concepts allow for including more relationships.

Now it can be discussed as a whole and another key factor, one related to relationships, is made more obvious. Lessig says that any solution is going to need to satisfy perceptions of fairness. For example, should the owner of original content also own the remixes? How about, is it fair to earn commercial value from collaborative content?

He proposed specific changes to reach a solution.

He doesn’t just discuss what is already happening but he specifically addresses the future by calling for two paradigm shifts that will support a peaceful and creatively fulfulling resolution. One shift can be enacted by making five types of changes in copyright law. The other is less tangible, a change in our norms and expectations.

Do you want a closer look?

Remix was an interesting read, but it’s not a compact manifesto. Pick this one up if you are intrinsically interested in copyright or in seeing how thoughts evolve. If you’re looking for something to expand your mind in general, then I might pass it by in favor of other options.

Either way, do take a look at Lessig’s website. He has been writing for over a decade about his views on the negative effects of current copyright law and the extremes to which some companies and lawyers take it

One last note – he practices what he preaches. He supported his belief in the value of remixing by encouraging others to adapt an interview he did while promoting Remix. A good summary of the results is this post at Mental Floss magazine.