So we live in a world where our kids will grow up on Mickey Mouse, Hannah Montana and all sorts of Hollywood fabrications. We live in a world where our kids will grow up on CSI, Heroes, 50 Cent, Beyonce and you name it. But they will be told that they cannot use any aspects of these Hollywood creations in their own creative expressions. They will be told that sharing these creations would constitute a crime, which has been framed as such by a great deal of MPAA and SAFACT print, TV and film advertising. If the budget for such advertising campaigns were spent on denouncing the unilateral invasion of sovereign nations and the subsequent killing of countless civilians, then perhaps public opinion on social (in)justice in the world may very well have turned the tide a long time ago.
Imagine being raised into a culture, but then being told that you may not use it or share it. Imagine being told that your very acts of criticism, exchange, creativity and debate constitute copyright or trademark violation. Welcome to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the trade agreements that globalise these narrow and self-interested understandings of intellectual ‘property’. Welcome to the end of the public domain (and civil society)… welcome to lockdown culture.
“How much is it gonna cost you to buy your way out of a culture that originally bought you?
…
Penny for a thought, nigger, penny for a thought.
What the fuck have you bought into?”
– Saul Williams
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January 20th, 2009 @00:20 #
Hi Adam. This reminds me of a bakery I visited deep in the Massachusetts countryside ten years ago. There was a huge sign up saying that parents could not order a cake decorated with Mickey Mouse, Barbie etc icing without violating copyright law. The thought of Barney et al cakes makes me nauseous, but my mind boggled at the thought of pumping little kids with all this branding and then banning it from their birthday parties. Try explaining to a four-year-old why she can't have a Nemo cake...
January 20th, 2009 @00:26 #
You're so right. My kid shouldn't be told that he can't find Nemo after I've already bought him the DVD, the T-shirt and jammies to boot...
January 20th, 2009 @19:11 #
Excellent observation and one I that agree raises an issue which begs attention. My challenge is that we collectively recognise the many 'other(s)' we buy into that which both does and does not hide behind 'laws' which ultimately facilitates an environment which is clearly questionable, at least.
January 20th, 2009 @20:04 #
We want you to consume Nemo, but you can't eat him...
January 20th, 2009 @20:50 #
Yup, and you can't reverse engineer his code and turn him into the man from Atlantis...
January 20th, 2009 @21:06 #
Helen, do you remember tutoring me middle English at UCT in 1991? Small world, innit?
January 20th, 2009 @21:50 #
Good Goddess! All this time you've looked familiar, and now I've placed you at last. I immediately take all credit for your amazing subsequent achievements (including your book) and brilliant career. I can just see how Chaucer would have been a vital stepping-stop to your hip-hop success.
January 20th, 2009 @22:20 #
But of course. Rhymes, profanity, nudity, lechery ... the parallels with commercial hip-hop are pretty clear cut....
January 20th, 2009 @23:39 #
... and don't forget political satire of the most rollicking kind.
January 21st, 2009 @09:59 #
And Adam plays the guitar:
In Cape Town whilom was a compaignye
of younge folk that haunteden copy,
as riot, hasard, stywes, and tavernes
where as with harpes, lutes and GYTERNES,
they daunce and pleyen at remixing both day and nyght
and downloads also over his myght...
January 21st, 2009 @10:04 #
Rollycking indeed! Gravely.
January 21st, 2009 @12:57 #
Delicious, Rustum. I taught a lot of Marxist and feminist theory thanks to Chaucer, who absolutely begs to be read politically. A pity UCT doesn't offer Middle English anymore, I had a lot of fun teaching it.
January 21st, 2009 @19:45 #
Classic, Rustum!
Shamiel: Yup, I think the mission is to find / recognise those spaces where agency is possible. I had this debate with a student about gaming culture and debunked the thought that it's a 'white' thing. I told her about video arcade games in corner cafes, spazas and huis winkels -- this constituted its own counter-culture of sorts, especially with regard to middle class, religious (and thus respectable) values....