Must see video from the TED conference
TED, the all star conference that brings together prominent people from all walks of life to discuss ideas, hosts a variety of captivating videos on their blog. This video of Larry Lessig's 2007 TED talk on the contradiction between user generated content ("UGC") and copyright
is enlightening with hilarious examples (I generally don't watch too many videos
for the same reason I don't watch TV... not enough time, but these TED
videos are killer).
The main point is our children are indeed creating and producing content using remixes or mashups of various media. And the copyright police are explicitly, i.e. by suing random, unlucky consumers who downloaded copyrighted media, and implicitly , i.e. using commercials that indict intellectual piracy as a crime, telling society that the new content creators are law breakers. This is corrosive to society and breeds the teenager-class cynicism almost everybody can relate to.
The "control" of content becomes more futile as society begins to accept the paradigm that content seeks freedom. After Google acquired YouTube, it deleted all the Warner Bros. cartoons of Foghorn Leghorn et al much to the dismay of my kids. Check again today and they have all returned... I'm assuming Warner Bros. just got tired of the cease and desist routine. And frankly, I don't like explaining to my kids that watching Foghorn Leghorn free borders on illegal (but I do, so what does that do to their value system?)
The parallels between copyright and real estate? Real estate "data" is being set free by Zillow and other Web 2.0 sites promoting information exchange. But the data is still "unstructured" in the eye of the consumer. It's the work of the real estate professional to "mashup" the content - local listings, the economy, today's mortgage market details - and create their UGC - a coherent picture of the state of their local market in real time. And this picture needs to be updated all the time because the market is always changing. Again, one more reason why a real estate blog works to provide as much information as possible to the society that needs their services. It's tangible evidence of the blogging agent's expertise.
Related article: Real estate blogging is a unique kind of user generated content
The main point is our children are indeed creating and producing content using remixes or mashups of various media. And the copyright police are explicitly, i.e. by suing random, unlucky consumers who downloaded copyrighted media, and implicitly , i.e. using commercials that indict intellectual piracy as a crime, telling society that the new content creators are law breakers. This is corrosive to society and breeds the teenager-class cynicism almost everybody can relate to.
The "control" of content becomes more futile as society begins to accept the paradigm that content seeks freedom. After Google acquired YouTube, it deleted all the Warner Bros. cartoons of Foghorn Leghorn et al much to the dismay of my kids. Check again today and they have all returned... I'm assuming Warner Bros. just got tired of the cease and desist routine. And frankly, I don't like explaining to my kids that watching Foghorn Leghorn free borders on illegal (but I do, so what does that do to their value system?)
The parallels between copyright and real estate? Real estate "data" is being set free by Zillow and other Web 2.0 sites promoting information exchange. But the data is still "unstructured" in the eye of the consumer. It's the work of the real estate professional to "mashup" the content - local listings, the economy, today's mortgage market details - and create their UGC - a coherent picture of the state of their local market in real time. And this picture needs to be updated all the time because the market is always changing. Again, one more reason why a real estate blog works to provide as much information as possible to the society that needs their services. It's tangible evidence of the blogging agent's expertise.
Related article: Real estate blogging is a unique kind of user generated content
Wow, great video. I just finished watching it after I spent 45 minutes watching Foghorn Leghorn on YouTube. Seriously.
It made me think. Google is the single biggest contributor to copyright infringement. Not only on sites like blogger and YouTube, but in their own affiliate advertising system that rewards copyright pirates for stealing content in the first place.
How long until the DOJ gets involved, of a class action lawsuit comes to fruition?
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Did you know there are a dozen Foghorn Leghorns on Facebook? I was just looking for a fan club for us Todd... I think the point of the article is that it would be politically disingenuous to get the DOJ involved in these borderline issues of copyright infringement. Check out the wrath Prince is getting from former fans for a copyright suit against a baby dancing to one of his Prince tunes on a YouTube...
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http://www.nonstick.com/sounds/Foghorn_Leghorn/ltfl_056.wav
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Great post! Thanks for bringing Tedtalks to the RE.net forefront Pat. This is real thought provoking information on an important subject.
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