Blog 9 Remix Intro.

First, describe what you see as Lessig's key argument in the Introduction.

On Remix by Lawrence Lessig, he argues “the copyright wars” through his examples of artist and creators that were targeted by large corporations that set out to make examples of them.  He states that the extreme of regulation that copyright law has become makes it difficult, and sometimes impossible, for wide range of creativity that any free society-if it thought about it for just a second-would allow to exist, legally (18).  

Second, describe the difference RW and RO culture and why it matters to Lessig's argument.

The difference between RW and RO culture:

“Read/Write” culture in Sousa’s world ordinary citizens “read” their culture by listening to it or by reading representations of it.  This reading, however, is not enough.  Instead, they (or at least the “young people of the day”) add to the culture they read by creating and re-creating the culture around them.  They do this re-creating using the same tools the professional uses-the “pianos, violins, guitars, mandolins, and banjos”- as well as tools given to them by nature-“vocal cords.”

“Read/Only culture: a culture less practiced in performance, or amateur creativity, and more comfortable (think: couch) with simple consumption (28).  A culture of recording, or performances captured in some tangible form, and then duplicated and sold by an increasingly concentrated “recording” industry ….player –piano rolls, then quickly phonographs” (29)

It matter to Lessig because of the competition they created a competition that drove products to be in higher demand creating better quality of products at a cheaper price.  He states “by the twenty-first century, this competition had produced extraordinary access to a wide range of culture (30).  RO had come to define what most of us understood culture, or at least “popular culture” to be. 

Third, why does Lessig use Sousa?

Lawrence used Sousa because Sousa was romanticizing culture in a way that might remind the student of American history of Thomas Jefferson.  Jefferson romanized the yeoman farmer.  He would sicken by the modern corporate farm that has displaced d his yeoman hero. Sausa’s take on culture was similar to that of Jefferson.  His fear was not that culture, or the actual quality of the music produced in a culture, would be less.  His fear was that people would be less connected to, and hence practiced in, creating that culture.  Amateurism, to this professional, was a virtue-not because it produced great music, but because it produced a musical culture: a love for, and an appreciation of, the music he re-created, respect for the music he played, and hence a connection to a democratic culture (27).  He celebrated a “Read/Write” culture and feared that this RW culture would disappear, be replaced by- “Read/Only” culture (28).  He was also was a critic of the 1906 relatively lax United States copyright system (23).