Sunday, February 27, 2011

Pictures on the Web

Larry Lessig's talk was really interesting to hear because I've known about youtubers who've been fighting the removal of videos based on copyright for awhile, but I didn't really think of their videos as a revival of cultural creation.  I took a writing class last semester that dealt with popular culture, and it did talk about it though, and about how popular culture produces active participants who participate by creating, and they mentioned fan videos as one of the ways they didn't just read, but wrote, so I guess I did know it, I just never made the connection.  I'm not really sure if the situation has improved since his video although I know most users quote or mention copyright in their video description in an attempt to keep it from being removed.  It's interesting that he says kids have no respect for copyright now, but I think they actually know more about it, because of the removals.  They might not know the entire truth, because the information gets jarbled between users, but they know more about what they are allowed to do.  I know people haven't stopped making videos though.  They just upload their videos to other sites, I know AMV makers have multiple sites where they can upload their videos without them being removed as frequently as they are on Youtube.  So his last argument, about BMI, did kind of happen. 

About the other video, with the girl's picture ending up in a campaign in Austrailia...that's just upsetting.  To think that people could profit from someone's picture on the other side of the world, without them knowing, is frightening.  People shouldn't have to worry about then when they upload pictures to accounts that supposedly protect those rights.  Same with the GAP using the car picture, if they're going to profit from his picture, he should be getting some of the profits.  Sure it's weird to think that someone somewhere might be using a picture I took in a computer class for an assignment somewhere, but it's entirely different to think they'd be making money of it or pasting it all over Australia.

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