Free Culture (Final Blog)

This week we read an article by Heikki Patomaki and Teivo Teivainen entitled “Critical Responses to Neoiberal Globalization in the Mercosur Region,” and watched videos on youTube.com discussing “Free Culture.” Lawrence Lessig, a lawyer, wrote a series of books, which these videos are made off of. I had never truly thought about the effects of copyright, I just always knew it was there, and was taught never to copyright. I agree with what was copyright laws on some accounts, people that make a living by designing, creating or writing something have to have a way of making money, and copyright it how it is done. But then I never knew that copyright laws could extend so far beyond a life. As for the article, I found the debate it brought up of democracy and globalization very intriguing.

People brought up good reasons in class for copyright, such as the girl who’s father created a program that does his work for him. But at the same time who gets the money from the copyright expires. I personally do not think it is right for the work, whatever it may be, to still be copyright, I think it should be available for everyone to use. I just believe that after seeing someone else’s work, one can adapt it for their own and use pieces of the old. Some of my favorite music is from combining different types of music to create something brilliant. Such as in Step Up, the music combines classical with a modern beat, to signify the dancers merging hip hop and ballet.

A question I thought of while watching the videos was what about remakes and covers? How do those not go under some copyright law? Almost every movie out there has been made in one way or another, a lot of the movies I have grown up watching are remakes of movies my parents grew up watching.