Week 11: “The Public Domain”

Who is Lessig referring to when he argues ‘ours was a free culture’, what does he believe made that culture free and why does he believe that culture is now becoming less free?

 

Lessig believes in the value of property, but mentions that there is plenty of value that “property” doesn’t capture, like the value that is plainly part of a process of production. When he argues ‘ours was a free culture’, is it because of the weak regulation of the law that spurred Walt Disney creativity, or is it because of a vague hypothesis that suggests ‘derivative works’ further augments the mainstream market? I believe that it is both. It is clear that Lessig asserts that all cultures are free to some degree. The true question is how much can others actually take from a culture and build something out of it?

 

 

Lessig, L 2004, ‘Creators’, in Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology And The Law To Lock Down Culture and Creativity, The Penguin Press, New York, pp. 21-30.