The Scholar’s Space

Copyright in a sound bite? No. But remix in a sound bite? Absolutely. Lessig makes his point about the value of Remix by putting his and Colbert’s money where Lessig’s mouth is. Bite on this. Lessig shows the original clip of his interview on The Colbert Report, about 6 minutes (a bit painful to watch him up against a comedian), then links to a few of the first remixes. It only takes listening to or watching a couple to fully get it. This is so cool and fun and this is what all the fuss is about! What these folks have done would have been illegal without the permission Lessig orally provided, authorizing remixes of his interview (and later affixing a CC-BY license to the clip). Colbert eloquently states the party line: No one should ever remix my stuff unless I say so.

Of course there are lots more remixes. Lessig links to and discusses them at another of his blog posts. Do go check them out. You won’t need to read the book. Just kidding. The book is a great read. Read it!

I finished it a few days ago and sure enough, he makes 5 specific recommendations for how Congress could modify the law to stop the failed war on file sharing. But he also points out that CC licenses implement 4 of the 5 policies independently of Congressional action …

Congress could act. Congress should act. Congress may never act. I’m so tempted to say “so what” here, but Jamie Boyle’s faith in our ability to make the case keeps me from it. CC licenses require us, one at a time, to take a stand in favor of a more reasonable scope for the law. Congress could bring about the more reasonable scope in one fell swoop. I won’t hold my breath, but I won’t give up either, not so long as Jamie Boyle and Larry Lessig still think there’s reason to believe it’s possible. Either way, the market in remixes is going for it.