Coming To Terms With Creativity

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Coming to Terms with Creativity: Free Culture

Understanding the Writer’s Argument

The writer, Lawrence Lessig, wants to defend a free culture by suggesting a balance between anarchy and control. He emphasizes the availability of chances for new businesses to create products with more freedom of choice. The problem he discusses is related to the copyright legislation policies and postulates after the arrival of new technologies. He affirms that producing derivative products out of some already established brands has been made illegal through current laws of copyrights. In Lessig’s view, it creates a big hindrance in the way of attaining a free culture ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"FvkvV7Kl","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Lessig)","plainCitation":"(Lessig)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":14,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/wreEcalP/items/4AD9JKT4"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/wreEcalP/items/4AD9JKT4"],"itemData":{"id":14,"type":"article-journal","title":"How big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity","container-title":"Retrieved December","page":"2004","volume":"5","author":[{"family":"Lessig","given":"Lawrence"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2004"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Lessig).

The writer discusses the effects of extremism in the copyright acts of the American legislative assembly. He claims that the current copyright strategies do not allow new entrepreneurs to utilize their creative skills fully. He recalls that the earlier American leaders also insisted in the constitution that the copyrights should only be applied for a limited time. However, the Congress today is striving in the opposite direction by extending copyrights to unlimited terms.

Lessig uses an analytical approach to defend his argument and presents evidence from current political, business, and technological areas related to the industry ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"KH4kP4f7","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Fitzgerald and Oi)","plainCitation":"(Fitzgerald and Oi)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":15,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/wreEcalP/items/GNXHCZYD"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/wreEcalP/items/GNXHCZYD"],"itemData":{"id":15,"type":"article-journal","title":"Free culture: Cultivating the creative commons","container-title":"Media & Arts Law Review","volume":"9","issue":"2","author":[{"family":"Fitzgerald","given":"Brian F."},{"family":"Oi","given":"Ian"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2004"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Fitzgerald and Oi). He fears that the creativity of the nation will suffer in the end; the new talent shall be wasted, and opportunities will be minimized.

The writer gives an example of the fine charged to a person who steals a CD from a store as compared to that charged to a person who carries out downloading of a CD. There is a huge difference between the two. From Lessig’s point of view, such high penalties imposed on indulging in illegal uses point to the extremist approaches of law-making by the authorities.

Significant Aspects of the Text

The writer quotes examples and discusses stories of interest to solicit his argument. He makes use of words and expressions that could make his concern conveyable easily. His work critically describes that copyright power has become immense substantially in the modern age. To prove his point, he shows five dimensions of the period, range, reach, hold, and integration of the copyright power expansion ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ZF0pa9Nk","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Mahoney)","plainCitation":"(Mahoney)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":17,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/wreEcalP/items/LHYSDHWP"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/wreEcalP/items/LHYSDHWP"],"itemData":{"id":17,"type":"book","title":"Lawrence Lessig's Dystopian Vision","publisher":"JSTOR","ISBN":"0042-6601","author":[{"family":"Mahoney","given":"Julia D."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2004"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Mahoney).

Lessig’s work also documents the way the industry has used the law to serve its purpose of limiting the competition to only the major media corporations. The industry giants have succeeded in taking legal actions against those who were the emerging new talents by mitigating the scope of their business growth.

He cites an example of the old Hollywood film-making era that the studios, cameras, and techniques used in that time are in no way sufficient for the current film-making sets. In the same way, the copyright policies and laws of the previous times cannot fulfill the needs of the present times. Therefore, they need to be revised.

Evaluating the Author’s Approach

The author has approached the issue with clear, sensible thinking about the subject. His study provides insight to avoid the loss of any opportunities of increased profitability by promoting creativity both of which could have contributed to the industry as well as the economy. However, the other perspective of the issue cannot be ignored as well, that is, the basic right of owning the property of a person or a business entity. While making efforts to create a free culture, it should also be considered that the security of people's assets comes before making more profits ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"amWysJ1Y","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Pasquinelli)","plainCitation":"(Pasquinelli)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":16,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/wreEcalP/items/3XGVSPRQ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/wreEcalP/items/3XGVSPRQ"],"itemData":{"id":16,"type":"article-journal","title":"The ideology of free culture and the grammar of sabotage","container-title":"Policy Futures in Education","page":"671-682","volume":"8","issue":"6","author":[{"family":"Pasquinelli","given":"Matteo"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2010"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Pasquinelli).

Lessig concludes that the extremist copyright acts as described in his book will result in mitigating the progress of science and arts. Whereas the US constitution holds an entirely different opinion in this regard. As a matter of fact, no country or nation would promote a law or activity which hinders the way of their progress.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Fitzgerald, Brian F., and Ian Oi. “Free Culture: Cultivating the Creative Commons.” Media & Arts Law Review, vol. 9, no. 2, 2004.

Lessig, Lawrence. “How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock down Culture and Control Creativity.” Retrieved December, vol. 5, 2004, p. 2004.

Mahoney, Julia D. Lawrence Lessig’s Dystopian Vision. JSTOR, 2004.

Pasquinelli, Matteo. “The Ideology of Free Culture and the Grammar of Sabotage.” Policy Futures in Education, vol. 8, no. 6, 2010, pp. 671–82.