What good can come from “bad”

Reflect on Lessig’s discussion of R/O vs R/W culture. Do you think that networks and digital technology create a cultural conflict between users (and their public/commons expectations) and owners (and their claim to intellectual property)? Do “bad” laws breed good pirates? And what would “good” laws look like?

I believe in the idea that what can come out of “bad laws” are “good pirates”. Laws only exist because somewhere along the line, those who could make the law, made it for whatever reasons. The reasons could be good and the law protects and serves society for the better. The reasons could be bad or arbitrary and the law only protects and serves those who made the law in the first place. I think that in the case of this idea of protecting intellectual property as it relates to media, the laws were unknowingly bad because of a rapidly changing approach towards how we approached our media consumption as consumers. And sometimes the laws just simply dont work because of this rapid shift. Take for example the Calvin (from Calvin and Hobbes the comic) stickers we see everywhere. The creator Bill Watterson had zero desire to license his creation out for good or for bad, he just simply didnt want to. Ultimately what happened is now this wholesome character is more recognized for peeing on a chevy logo, ford logo, political opposition, etc. rather than the awesome comic character that he was. Bill’s intellectual property was not protected though we have an abundance of laws that should have protected it. I bring this up because I think that in the current world that we live in you cannot really control this idea of protecting intellectual property, at least on that scale. Once the ball gets rolling on something that does infringe then it almost seems like no amount of cease and desist letters with stop it. And to that point there are going to be good examples of this and bad examples like Calvin. Given that we live in a country that supposedly prides itself on all these freedoms that are afforded to us, I believe that you have to take the good with the bad. Who is to say what a “good” law looks like anyways? Laws in general draw a line in the sand and someone or some content is going to fall on the other side of laws line. I think that a good law is one that protects and serves all and takes into consideration the context of the issue. The music industry for example championed this idea that piracy is bad and the artists and their labels where suffering a significant financial blow. Well we know that this is not true. So while its easy to chant “STEALING!” the laws should reflect what is ACTUALLY happening rather than some emotional response from those who feel they are losing money on their intellectual property.

Back to the idea of “good pirates”, I think that the music industry has shown us how infringing can be a good thing. I made this point in the discussion board, but an absolute prime example of this is DJ Danger Mouse exposing an entire generation of rap fans to the Beatles in the Grey album. While what happened to poor Calvin is certainly what bad can come from it, DJ Danger Mouse to me is the good that come out of this idea of lawbreakers in the intellectual property game.