Alfred Deakin Innovation Lectures: The Creative Commons
Update:
Kim Weatherall has her perspective on the lecture. (Kim’s a lecturer at my school.)
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I went to a public lecture today, when I really should’ve been at home trying to complete a Property Law assignment due tomorrow (statutory interpretation of the Native Title Act…gah).
But the lecture was definitely worth it. There were 3 speakers, but I only know 2 of them. I have been reading their blogs (and books from 1 of them) for so long, so this is really the first real chance I have of hearing them speak in person.
I think this picture gives a huge clue about 1 of the speaker’s identity. Note the stickers on the Powerbook.
and Joi Ito.
Lessig was brilliant on stage. He absolutely captured the audience’s attention while speaking, and the various video and music clips he used in his presentation were powerful examples of how free culture (free as in freedom, not free as in beer) allows for great creativity and innovation in cultural production.
Central to his theme, is that the ‘rip, mix and share’ culture is one that have been with us since the beginning of human culture, with the only difference now being that the tools we use have changed. Lessig referenced the Grey Album by DJ Dangermouse, a mash up of Jay-z and the Beatles. He also touched on a couple of other examples as well but I can’t remember all of them.
Copyright governs the production of copies. In the analog world, the whole range of activities that we used to do under ‘rip, mix and share’ did not involve the making of copies, or not significantly. Consequently, those activities were not regulated under copyright law, or were exempted under ‘fair use’ provisions.
The problem for us now however, in the digital world, is that any activity that comprises ‘rip, mix and share’, the very activities that we have been doing as part of our human tradition of cultural production, involves the making of copies. That means copyright law automatically expands to include every single action that anyone could take online, most crucially, actions that create new culture.
Thus cultural production has become ‘permissions-based’. You are not allowed to ‘rip, mix and share’, unless you have the permission of the ‘rights’ owner. You are not allowed to sing it, write about it, perform it, play it, synthesize it, etc etc…
Who owns culture?
Joi Ito spoke about the business aspect of Creative Commons. The copyright cartel likes to portray copyfighters as ‘communists’. That cannot be further from the truth.
Joi spoke on the long tail, on how the advent of the internet requires businesses to think differently of how to sell things to people, and what things to sell. Most obviously, branding your customers as ‘thieves’, ‘communists’ and ‘terrorists’ does not help.
Joi mentioned how someone at Amazon told him that 70%(or was it 90%?) of Amazon’s sales came from items that were not stocked in the inventory (i.e. old music, old books etc). This means that the copyright cartel’s method of constantly pushing out manufactured rubbish and hoping at least 1 would become a blockbuster hit in order to make profits can no longer be a workable business model.
It means that in a global market, made possible by the internet and globalisation, millions of small producers can find profits in their niche and one-off products, as long as they have that platform for a global reach. It is those who provide that platform, an arbitrage opportunity if you will, who have reaped the rewards. Companies like Amazon, Google and eBay.
More importantly, Joi stresses that the standard response of the copyright cartel, “every illegal download is a lost sale”, has no basis in fact. He raises the example of fansubbers, who make illegal copies of Japanese anime in order to create subtitles for it in their own native language.
The result is NOT a lost sale, but an exponential increase in awareness and advertising of the anime, not through spending billions of dollars of a marketing budget, but a zer0-cost, word-of-mouth ‘buzz’ created by the hardcore fans themselves. What does this translate to?
[As an aside, I follow this anime called Gundam SEED Destiny religiously. Its all about politics, human complexities, and warring factions fought using giant robots. Tres cool. The most amazing thing is that the episodes available for download online are the most current ones shown in Japan. The anime screens every Saturday, and the subbed episodes would be available for download the following Wednesday. Truly global production in deed.
And what are the positive outcomes of this global 'piracy'? As far as I can tell, Bandai's (the rights owner to Gundam SEED Destiny) revenue stream comes entirely from selling the toys and games associated with the anime. The result is that there is an instant demand, from all over the globe, for Gundam miniature scale robots, videogames, soundtracks, etc etc... without them having to spend a single cent on promotion. If that is not positive, I don't know what is. I have bought 2 mecha models myself... :)]
Joi showed the audience the Narutrix mashup, another powerful example of how fan/customer-created derivative works such as remixes, parodies and satires not only raise awareness of the original work, but are also invaluable works of artistic creation in themselves. To limit, restrict and ultimately destroy the tools that would allow anyone to be an artist would not only be a huge cultural loss, but an economic and business opportunity loss as well.
Here above is a picture of Professor Larry Lessig and me. Brilliant speaker. Unfortunately, this is about the closest I would ever get to here, as I don’t think my grades would get me anywhere near Stanford Law School. On an unrelated note, I notice Lessig always has that serious look when taking pictures. I’ve yet to see a picture of him smiling.
And below is a picture of Joi and me. I actually spoke to Joi about James Seng for a bit… hehe hi James! *waves*
PS: I’ll try to get my hands on an accurate transcript of the lecture, or a torrent of the recording. I did speak to Professor Lessig, and he said he would post a torrent up.
