Reading Response Lessig Pages 7-30

Reading Lessing’s Free Culture book pages 7-30 has introduced me to some interesting conclusions about internet, creativity, copyright laws, and how they affect each other.  Lessig observes that in advent of the internet “free” creativity has been stymied to some degree because of the laws that now apply to online artistry.  “Yet the law’s response to the Internet, when tied to changes in the technology of the Internet itself, has massively increased the effective regulation of creativity in America. To build upon or critique the culture around us one must ask, Oliver Twist–like, for permission first” (Lessig, pg 10).  The dynamic of internet culture really has changed.  I found it neat that later on, on page 17, Lessig quotes Lord Mansfield when he says “A person may use the copy by playing it, but he has no right to rob the author of the profit, by multiplying copies and disposing of them for his own use”.  I find this quote particularly relevant since I said very much the same thing in my last blog post.  This reading is making me think critically about the relationship between the law and art online, and how it relates to our project of appropriating art.  Thankfully I don’t think we will have any legal issues because we (presumably) will not be selling our projects on the black market.  :P