1. ENG/IMS 224:
Lessig, Owning Culture, and
Mashing stuff up

2. Remix is Like…
Remix is the act of taking one or more cultural
artifacts-- visual, video, audio, and/or
alphabetic texts- and deliberately mixing
elements together to create something new
that often specifically mimics one or more of
the sources. Many remixes are meant to be
satirical or overtly political, though satire is
not essential.

3. The problem rises….
If you look at my definition, you see the
problem really, really early on: “you take one
or more cultural artifacts”– stress on the
“take.” On the next few slides are some remix
images I’ve made myself recently, just for
kicks.
Yeah, I’m a big ol’ remix for fun nerd.

8. Key issue: IP law
The question here becomes “whose intellectual
property are these things?”
Are those mine? I “made” them, but I didn’t
make them from a blank slate. Am I allowed to
just borrow that stuff?
Let’s ask a lawyer!

9. Lessig on IP law
• Lessig declares that he has the following
positions:
–He is anti-piracy
–He is anti-war (meaning law vs. creators
here)
–He is anti-lawyer and anti-lobbyist (he
includes himself here, so he’s anti-Lessig,
too)

10. Lessig is like,
• “We need to hear less from lawyers and
lobbyists and more from artists [about who
owns culture].”
• " This is a relationship
between technology
and ownership,
which is translated
to digital technology
and copyright.”

11. Pirate Technologies
player piano – “pirated” sheet music
radio– “pirated” records
cable TV– “pirated” network TV
betamax– “pirated” TV and movies
But as these were regulated, the law
always waited to see “the potential
of the technology.”

12. We Didn’t Start the Fire…
• “...this is not the first time radical new
technologies have appeared and changed the
way that culture gets made and distributed.
This is a constant theme...”
• But… The law favored the pirate in those old
cases. It is now "fit the technology
to the law" and not "fit the law to
the technology."

13. "This architecture demands... the right to
remix culture."
Enter DJ Danger Mouse. He felt that the Beatles’
White Album and Jay-Z’s black album went together.
So he created
“the Grey Album”
which you can Google
And download.
but don’t, because it’s
totally illegal. *wink*
Or is it?

14. Remix
Remix
Remix is the act of taking one or more cultural
artifacts-- in this case visual, though video,
audio, and alphabetic texts are regularly
remixed-- and deliberately mixing elements
together to create something new that often
specifically mimics one or more of the sources.
Many remixes are meant to be satirical or
overtly political, though satire is not essential to
the genre.
Remix is the act of taking one or more cultural
artifacts-- visual, video, audio, and/or
alphabetic texts- and deliberately mixing
elements together to create something new
that often specifically mimics one or more of
the sources. Many remixes are meant to be
satirical or overtly political, though satire is
not essential.

15. Remix: from The Daily Show
+ =

16. Remix: from Marvel Comics
+ =

17. Remix: from random net site
+
=

18. Another Example
• The New Yorker ran a piece on Danger Mouse
and the idea of mash-ups.
• “Mashups find new uses for current digital
technology, a new iteration of the cause-and-
effect relationship behind almost every
change in pop-music aesthetics: the gear
changes, and then the music does.”
• So… whose song is this?

19. A Stroke of Genius
“In October of 2001, a d.j. named
Roy Kerr, calling himself the
Freelance Hellraiser, sent Temple-
Morris [a mash-up show duo] a
mashup called “A Stroke of
Genius,” laying Christina
Aguilera’s vocal from “Genie in a
Bottle,” a lubricious pop song,
over the music from the Strokes’
“Hard to Explain,” a brittle,
honking guitar song. “

20. So what we have to consider…
1) Who “owns” a particular piece of art
2) What can we use and what can’t we use?
3) What IS Fair Use?
4) What is Creative Commons?
5) How do we avoid having to try a justification
like this?