Tuesday, April 29, 2008

quoting the smart (3)

"Now I don't personally support the idea of people using peer-to-peer technologies to commit acts that are considered illegal. So I'm not interested in peer-to-peer surviving for the purpose of enabling copyright infringement. But I am really eager that the technology be allowed to exist so that the many legal uses that it will encourage--including uses that will support the remix culture--will be able to take off."

-- Lawrence Lessig, in a 2005 interview with Richard Koman on oreillynet.com, showing how he makes a necessary distinction between sharing and taking.

1 comment:

Infringer said...

Well, whether it is taking or sharing, I suppose depends very much on where you are standing.

In related news, the RIAA is suing project playlist because it allows users to share audio files with their friends. (only their friends)

This truly is the digital equivalent of what we all did as kids. Share our music collections with our friends. Didn't you copy your friends albums to tapes as a kid John?

The problem with culture in this new world where copying is so easy is that the lines between sharing and taking become blurred.