A Generation of Pirates

I feel the need to start this blog with a confession. I don’t want to lie to my (many) readers. You deserve to know the truth, and I hope that after my confession you will choose to accept me and continue to read this article. Well, here it goes..I am a criminal. It all started in 2002, when at the young age of 12 I decided to download the Moulin Rouge soundtrack off my newly acquired Limewire software. 

More specifically I’m considered a pirate by today's copyright extremists, and I’m willing to guess that a majority of you are guilty of this as well. Copyright wasn’t written for the internet, and begs to be amended to today's standards.
 Lawrence Lessig’s, “REMIX: How Creativity is Being Strangled by the Law” focuses on this disconnect between copyright laws and today’s technology. He says proper regulation of these laws has to reflect changes in technology and that what may have worked at one point, might not anymore. 

So, what’s not working?

 When you torrent Drake’s new album, do piracy charges cross your mind? When a 14 year old girl edits together clips from her favorite TV show to Rhianna’s Love The Way You Lie..does she stop to remember she’s using The CW’s footage and that she forgot to ask Rhianna’s permission to use her song? 

This remix is an example of what should be changed about the copyright law; amateurs making remixes need to be exempted and given “free use rather than fair use”. Copyright stifles creative works of young people everywhere, while also making Youtube’s job very difficult; sifting through and flagging thousands of remixes posted by fans everyday. 

Lessig talks of “Hybrid economies, where a commercial entity leverages a sharing economy”. Yelp and Urbanspoon are examples of hybrid economies, where the masses can state why their favorite restaurant is so great, which in turn gives value to Olive Garden and its wonderfully addictive breadsticks. Why couldn’t this work with movies and music? Jane posts her One Tree Hill Love story to Facebook, and in return 34 of her friends decide to tune into The CW. “We need to practice respect for this new generation of creators.”

How does this work with peer to peer sharing? How can the music industry and/or artists be compensated without labeling today’s youth as criminals? 

The band Radiohead gave one example in 2007, releasing their album “In Rainbows”, on a pay whatever you wish strategy. Allowing fans to legally download the album for free, or add to a “digital tip jar”. While this album was still torrented illegally by millions, it also SOLD millions worldwide, surpassing the sales of their previous album.  
  

The 'In Rainbows' Experiment: Did It Work?

These two examples help make the argument that copyright laws of the past need a drastic makeover, to better show off their new, tech savvy generation's skills. This generation will continue to remix and download regardless, so why not allow them to do so without the title "criminal" or "pirate" looming over their shoulder?