Lawrence Lessig on the Colbert Report, 1/8/09:
“Artists have gotten no more money, businesses have not gotten more profit, and our kids have been turned into criminals.” – Lawrence Lessig
I agree with Lessig. Remixes and mashups aren’t going away. It’s time that Congress developed ways to address the new medium rather than fight it. Artists including Yo Yo Ma have warmed to the idea and encourage remixes of their work. Great collabs crop up daily on the music blogs and beyond. See last week’s Jaydiohead, a Jay-Z and Radiohead mashup by Minty Fresh Beats that, despite what Pitchfork had to say, had people including the likes of Carson Daly talking it up.
I enjoyed hearing Lessig briefly explain his “hybrid economy” theory. Hybrid economies are seemingly more prevalent than we think. This blog is a hybrid. Particularly if I chose to sell ad space on it. So I feature content from other places like Comedy Central on this blog which is hosted by WordPress – a platform that I did not partake in the creation of. When the copyrighted content is fused with the editorial I write, it creates a new piece of work with additional opportunities for revenue.
I believe that artists should get paid for their work and all derivatives thereof. Just as Comedy Central tracks the embed of the above video and WordPress hosts my blog, each creator deserves a fair share of what is rightfully theirs. If Congress could learn to move forward with that idea instead of fighting the very idea of a collabration, remix, mashup, or hybrid project…well…that would be good.