The more I think about it filesharing, the more uncertain I become about its effects on the music industry. Lessig writes that roughly 28% of Americans older than 12 had downloaded music. I doubt a significant number of people over 55 download anything, which bumps the number of actual to potential users up to maybe 1/2. So who are the people who are downloading music, and who isn't? Everyone I know who is extremely into music downloads almost everything, and buys only the best of the best albums, having listened to a much broader selection. If everyone did this, it could have a natural selection-esque effect on the industry and force artists to constantly come up with innovative music to meet the higher standards.

So I'm a little behind on the reading, but I'm finding the chapter on piracy really interesting in Free Culture. It seems like Lessig really covers all his bases in terms of possible piracy excuses and rebuttals, and the distinction between piracy and file sharing.

For a while I've been trying to pin down my opinion of file sharing, and this chapter makes it much easier. The fact that the RIAA estimates that 803 million cds were sold in the same period that 2.1 billion cds were downloaded is either an overestimate or evidence that downloaded songs would NOT be bought otherwise (because revenue fell by 6.7%, not 100%). Lessig also makes a good point that several other factors could have contributed significantly to the drop in sales. The 20% drop in cds released between 1999 and 2002 blew me away. Why? WHY GOD??

While reading Free Culture, I was super interested in doujinshi, mentioned in the first chapter. These are comics that are essentially copies of other comics that are altered to make it the authors' own.
I think I can see why an art form like this is great, and why it is negative. Of course, from a consumer standpoint, it is great. Allowing artists to be more free with 'borrowing' or whatever we call it will probably mean more content is produced. And if there is good ideas, it benefits the consumer to have many artists (possibly) copy them and expand on them.
However, from the artists' standpoint, I can see how you wouldn't want other artist to use your ideas to make money that you probably could have made using your own intellectual properties.

In Free Culture, Lawrence Lessig says that the RIAA reported 43 million Americans downloaded music illegally in May 2002 (199). In other words, 43 million Americans (or 20%) are felons. I think it's safe to say that many college students now were/are in that mix. Lessig's point? A law is more ineffective the more people violate it. When 20% of a country violate a law, that law should be considered seriously and potentially changed. He says this, and I agree.

Have you ever heard of the 11th Commandment? "Thou shall not get caught." It's very American. Basically, anything goes as long as nobody finds out. Bill Clinton, Nixon, Carl Rove--politicians know that commandment well. That's the kind of dishonest ideology increasingly developing among Americans in recent years, and that is what Lessig means when he says, "Overregulation corrupts citizens" (199).

If you're interested in learning more about free culture stuff and copyright issues, here are two plugs for you.

1) Join the 5C Free Culture Club. It began last year, and has done such events as a remixing competitions (with workshops beforehand on how to use software like garageband to make remixes). They also brought in a speaker, Nelson Pavlosky, who was involved in the copyright case, OPG v. Diebold, and who help founded Free Culture Swarthmore (which was originally the Swarthmore Coalition for the Digital Commons). I think they meet on Thursday evenings. The person to contact would be Carolyn Davis, cdavis@scrippscollege.edu. It would be a great chance to begin addressing on a concrete level what we've been talking about in class in the abstract.