Comments on: Our Kids as Criminals

By: pmesthos@doaneacademy.org

pmesthos@doaneacademy.org — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:54:14 +0000

I read about this book in The American Scholar. I think Lessig poses a great question. My Mock Trial team is preparing a case that involves file sharing. The kid’s(defendant’s) only defense seems to be identity theft. I keep wanting to put the law on trial. The kids on my team do not take this practice of file sharing at all seriously. I feel some sympathy for your son’s English teacher I suppose. Although when I am looking for an information dump, that’s just what it is, an attempt to increase my students’ knowledge base so that we can go on to other things. For instance, we were going to visit Fallingwater. I told them to find out whatever they could about him for homework, and then when they came in the next day, I told them to write a paragraph containing the most important details they had learned. They would be assessed on their ability to organize information.

By: Thing #10 - Creative Commons | The Hines Initiative

Thing #10 - Creative Commons | The Hines Initiative — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:24:01 +0000

[...] now I am getting interested. The blog entry Our Kids as Criminals talks about the blurred lines between copyrighting on the web, and how if we do not take heed, then [...]

By: Bill Fitzgerald

Bill Fitzgerald — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:42:52 +0000

Hello, Gary,

On one level, I hear what you’re saying, but at the same time a good argument could be made that Eliot’s Wasteland engages in some pretty serious remixing — or, at the very least, some reuse and recontextualizing of other people’s ideas.

Conflating the tendency/propensity to reuse with the current technologies that make for easier reuse has the danger of submerging the inherent brilliance of *some* remixes and recontextualizations.

Not that I want to lead us down the “death of the author” rabbit hole…

Cheers,

Bill

By: edh

edh — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:21:34 +0000

Gary: What about the Grey Album? Whether or not you believe Dangermouse’s creation is “art” with a capital A, it is undeniably a powerful creative and cultural work. Other people think so too: http://popmatters.com/music/columns/powers/040310.shtml

As for me, I’ve finally got my copy of Remix and am going to read for myself.

By: Gary Stager

Gary Stager — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:43:57 +0000

I guess I’ll have to read this book.

However wise on matters of intellectual property law, I find Mr. Lessig to be profoundly ignorant and wrong-headed when he writes about art, creativity and culture.

For example, I do not imagine that “remixing” or “mash-ups” contributes to culture in any way resembling the role of culture over the ages. While remixing and mashing-up has been made easy by digital technology, very little of it can be considered art that has any chance of enduring.

Art and culture are expressions of the human condition that reflect our evolution over a progressive continuum of the ages. They require an aesthetic more sophisticated and profound than the cut and paste tool of the moment.

Art and culture are not commerce, even if Mr. Lessig’s work may starve the real artists he speaks of as abstractions or collateral victims.

By: Creative Commons HK Launch and Lessig Lecture | An Expat Educator in Asia

Creative Commons HK Launch and Lessig Lecture | An Expat Educator in Asia — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:50:12 +0000

[...] needs to be active in the field of Creative Commons, you might like to read this recent post, Our Kids as Criminals from [...]

By: edh

edh — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:46:20 +0000

I have been waiting to read this book! It’s amazing how ownership has been affected by the read/write/remix culture in the last decade. Today’s young people live in a totally different world when it comes to copyright, and perhaps the day is not too far off when we see changes for the better written into law.

I’m curious – does Lessig talk to youth who see themselves committing criminal acts? Or is he merely afraid that their interpretation of fair use will make them into criminals, then disregarding other laws in society?

By: Sharon Peters

Sharon Peters — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:08:01 +0000

Will, I share with you my admiration for Larry Lessig. And I think he asks some tough questions for those of us who are educators. We need a paradigm shift here in the kinds of content we are asking of our students. I caught my son (in grade 9) plagiarizing last week – straight from wikipedia on, of all things, his ethics assignment! For him, it sucks to be a son of a techie English teacher (I made him do it over again in his own words), but I was equally frustrated with a teacher who would give an assignment that so blatantly required a student to do a brain dump from the Internet (or cut and paste job!). If we ask for such things from our students, no wonder they resort to piracy and plagiarism.
When are we going to honour the creativity of a remix and/or the courage to self-publish?

Thanks for sharing.