Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy Hardcover - 2008

by Lawrence Lessig

The author of Free Culture shows how we harm our children andalmost anyone who creates, enjoys, or sells any art form with arestrictive copyright system driven by corporate interests. Lessig revealsthe solutions to this impasse offered by a collaborative yet profitable'hybrid economy'.

Lawrence Lessig, the reigning authority on intellectualproperty in the Internet age, spotlights the newest andpossibly the most harmful culture war a war waged againstour kids and others who create and consume art. America'scopyright laws have ceased to perform their original, beneficialrole: protecting artists' creations while allowing them to buildon previous creative works. In fact, our system now criminalizesthose very actions.

For many, new technologies have made it irresistibleto flout these unreasonable and ultimately untenable laws.Some of today's most talented artists are felons, and so are ourkids, who see no reason why they shouldn't do what their computersand the Web let them do, from burning a copyrightedCD for a friend to 'biting' riffs from films, videos, songs, etcand making new art from them.

Criminalizing our children and others is exactlywhat our society should not do, and Lessig shows how we canand must end this conflict a war as ill conceived and unwinnableas the war on drugs. 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 canalready see glimmers of a new hybrid economy that combinesthe profit motives of traditional business with the 'sharingeconomy' evident in such Web sites as Wikipedia and YouTube.The hybrid economy will become ever more prominent inevery creative realm from news to music and Lessig showshow we can and should use it to benefit those who make andconsume culture.

Remix is an urgent, eloquent plea to end a war thatharms our children and other intrepid creative users of newtechnologies. It also offers an inspiring vision of the post-warworld where enormous opportunities await those who view artas a resource to be shared openly rather than a commodity tobe hoarded.