Intellectual Property

In response to Lessig's article "In Defense of Piracy" in the WSJ, I completely agree with his call to action to deregulate amateur remix, deregulate 'the copy', simplify, restore efficiency, and decriminalize Gen-X. However, I believe his most important point to be that "new technology is restoring the 'vocal chords' of millions. Although it was once popularly believed that this new technology would squash the creativity of a generation, it has instead inspired a generation to grow on the works of their peers in order to create something that is their own. The traditional mediums for Gen-X to express themselves creatively have gone far beyond anything that our parents generation could have imagined, and at the current pace of technology will have dramatically changed again before the end of the next decade. In order to continue encouraging this new type of creativity to flourish, Gen-X must be decriminalized as quickly as possible and the 'war' on peer-to-peer file sharing must be realized for what it is (a failure). While our generation has been constantly threatened with jail time and large fines for our inability to quit our addiction to instant access to music (i.e. piracy), the worst stories that we know of have happened to 'friends of my friends' second cousin twice removed' - therefore, not very personal. The corporations suing us (largely a group of unemployed minors) are failing to make headway in a battle they started nearly a decade ago. These corporations should realize they are are destroying the creativity of potential artists whom they could sign to corporate labels in hopes of capitalizing on the amateur artists creativity.