TED talk: Lawrence Lessig and the Remix culture

liviacruz/ January 25, 2016

Remix verb (used with object), remixed, remixing. 1.to mix again. 2.to mix and re-record the elements of (a musical recording) in a different way. noun3.a remixed recording. Although in theory producers and DJs usually have permission to remix a recording, in reality, in many countries there are thousands of amateurs remixing their favourite songs and, although they are usually infringing someone else’s copyright, in places like Brazil, for example, the remix culture is widely accepted as it is seen merely as free

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Copyright issues in the music industry: Napster & file-sharing

liviacruz/ January 24, 2016

One of the most common criticisms against the music industry when it comes to piracy, is that the gatekeepers* of the pre-Napster era failed and continue to do so when it comes to modern business models. When Napster launched, record companies had recently ceased to sell singles (one-song CDs, often accompanied by one or two bonus tracks and usually costing

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Copyright term: how long is enough?

liviacruz/ January 24, 2016

One of the main issues with the Copyright Law today is the length of the term until a piece of work falls into public domain: 70 years AFTER the death of the copyright holder. Some claim that it is too long a term and that it hinders creative repurpose of older works. Below is a fantastic video by Grey that

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Millennials and digital natives’ behaviour

liviacruz/ January 24, 2016

“A generation […] is being raised to believe that “property” should be free” (Lawrence Lessig in “Free Culture”) “We need to understand how kids who grow up digital think and want to learn…we are building a legal system that completely surpasses the natural tendencies of today’s digital kids” (John Seely Brown, chief scientist of Xerox Corp.) Until fairly recently there was a growing

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What exactly is © and how does it work?

liviacruz/ November 20, 2015

Copyright is an Intellectual Property Law that grants creators the right to distribute and commercially exploit their work. It is argued that, without copyright, people would have no financial incentive to create, which would jeopardise the cultural well of the world. However, even if fairly recent, the laws of copyright have not developed and evolved within the same pace as technology

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