blog 9

Lessig’s argument is that the digital age has brought upon us a new idea of creativity. He uses four different examples that use this digital creativity in different ways, but all circle around the idea of copyright. The examples he uses imply that this age of digitalism has made viewing and using other peoples work more accessible. It is as simple as videotaping your eighteen-month-old son dancing to a Prince and putting it on YouTube; gathering people around the world to sing along to their favorite artist; to sampling, blending, and mixing music into its own unique song.  The main emphasis he wants people to understand and, I am sure we are going to learn much more about, is that the copyright is an ancient technique that needs to be examined further so our creativity does not get obliterated.

With the examples that he has shown us so far, I whole heartedly agree with him. We, as the audience, have to remember that there are always two sides to each story. Yes copyright needs to be up updated for the digital age, but it isn’t as cut and dry as it looks.

RO stands for Read-Only, or the read only culture. Read-Only culture stems from analog technologies. It is a term that defines an age before digitalism. A society where we are all consumers and only take things in; consumers are consuming. “Professionals” produced stuff for society to consume. RW stands for Read-Write culture. This is more of a reciprocal relationship between the producer and the consumer. Society now has the ability to produce for ourselves. I'm not saying in an RO society people are not creative and make things, but now with digital technologies and the Internet, we can produce and let others see are work instantly and easily. This RW culture brings us back to Web 2.0 and how the user is the focus of the online world.