Product Description

Lawrence Lessig, the reigning authority on intellectual property in the Internet age, spotlights the newest and possibly the most harmful culture war-a war waged against our children and others who create and consume art. Copyright laws have ceased to perform their original, beneficial role: protecting artists' creations while allowing them to build on previous creative works. In fact, our system now criminalises those very actions.
By embracing "read-write culture," which allows its users to create art as readily as they consume it, we can ensure that creators get the support-artistic, commercial, and ethical-that they deserve and need. Indeed, we can already see glimmers of a new hybrid economy that combines the profit motives of traditional business with the "sharing economy" evident in such websites as Wikipedia and YouTube. The hybrid economy will become ever more prominent in every creative realm-from news to music-and Lessig shows how we can and should use it to benefit those who make and consume culture.
Remix is an urgent, eloquent plea to end a war that harms our children and other intrepid creative users of new technologies. It also offers an inspiring vision of the post-war world where enormous opportunities await those who view art as a resource to be shared openly rather than a commodity to be hoarded.
Shortlisted for the 2008 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #201482 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
In praise of ... Lawrence Lessig

Prof Lessig is formidably qualified, with degrees in economics, management, philosophy and law, but it was only when he studied philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge, that his conservative views underwent radical change. His latest book, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, will enhance his cult status on the web. --The Guardian

Lessig has written a splendid combative manifesto - pungent, witty and
persuasive. --Financial Times

About the Author
Lawrence Lessig is Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the School's Center for Internet and Society. He is the author of Free Culture, The Future of Ideas, and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, and is a columnist at Wired. Scientific American named him as one of the Top 50 Visionaries and he has also been included several times in BusinessWeek's 'eBiz 25' : the twenty-five most influential people in electronic business.

Customer Reviews

Moving Forward but mindful of history
Having just received Lessig's latest title through the mail on Monday I have been reading his position of taking the old and creating the new with great interest. Trying to understand how and why big media congolomerates and their "copyrighted" ways approach is measured with such extreme enforcement boggles the mind -- free exchange, with 'some rights reserved' is the way forward. I salute the Creative Commons movement that Lessig helped pioneer over 7 years ago and can't wait for this title to be available under that license. Soon you'll be able to read this title for free, share it, remix it and make something new...but in the end you'll want your own copy too.

Too much rehashing
Just finished reading Lessig's latest book. I've been widely fascinated by his earlier work, but this one falls short compared to his other work on the subject of copyright in modern society. The first two parts is more or less just rehashing of old ideas, while the last part, about the future, is where the book really shines. More specifically it mentions five ways in which we can actually change copyright to make it better suited for the world we live in now.

He presents an interesting story about the problems they had in the southern states of America with racial discrimination. The problem was that if stores opened their doors to African Americans then they would be seen as pro-black and loose a lot of their original business. So in 1964 (!) a law was passed that made discrimination in public restaurants and other related establishments a felony. This changed the game completely. This reminds me of a law that was passed not that long ago in Denmark, that made smoking in the same kind of places a felony.

only ok book : but repetitive + nothing to do with art....
a short review ....

only an ok-ish intro book to the digital world of "appropriating" others music + images remxing them for "amateur" use, but nothing to do with the art world whatsover as depicited on the cover - so beware. directed at teens + twentysomething's burning others copyrighted music or video files on-line + how copyright might be reedefined for the future to offset the present use of such on-line creativity.

worthy but overlong + a bit dull...