Free Culture

“Free Culture: The Future of Creativity, Collaboration, and Knowledge”

Lecture by Elizabeth Stark

                I started undergraduate school in 1998. The same year that Napster started. It did not take long before I was shown all the “free” music that Napster had to offer. I do not think too many of us were concerned about copyright at the time. We thought it was just a great invention. It is amazing all the copyright issues that have come from that software. But this was just the beginning.

                I remember it took FOREVER, by today’s standards, to download a song. It would have to be selected and then off to class! Hopefully, when you returned to your dorm, the download was complete. (Of course, it was just a friend of a friend downloading, and certainly not me! Haha) Now file sharing is done in a matter of seconds. Stark mentioned, that even with DRM software, someone could purchase one copy of a song, and within 180 seconds it would be uploaded and able to be shared with those that did not purchase it. I am not the least bit artistic, so I can really understand artist’s frustration with this.

                On the other hand, I was surprised about how much trouble documentary film makers, etcetera might have when using thing that are considered fair use. It is unfortunate that a filmmaker has the legal right to use something in his film, but a big company can take him to court even though they know it is fair use. It just seems so unfair, knowing that most people cannot afford the legal costs to prove fair use.