Two book reviews out today.
San Jose Mercury News: Lawrence Lessig’s new book, Remix, calls for a truce in the copyright wars. Excerpt:
Instead of re-examining and perhaps reconsidering a losing strategy, the industry has expanded the battlefield. It is no longer only fighting people who share music online, but also cracking down on fans who remix bits of music in personal videos posted to YouTube or combined in mixtapes or video mixes.
I haven’t seen any examples of a crackdown on fans using bits of music in personal videos posted to YouTube, so if you know of any examples, I’d be interested in hearing them.
Lessig’s own book — and this review — build on the work of other people. Sources for this review include everything from e-mails from the Recording Industry Association of America, the Institute of Policy Innovation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, news articles by the New York Times and the Washington Internet Daily and blogs like TorrentFreak.com.
What Lessig wants is smarter rules (laws) and business models that provide
creators of art, music and film with some compensation while allowing
fans the freedom to engage with products they pay for.
A hugely important goal, which is why I hope Lessig joins the Obama administration in a senior legal role. His blog, which oddly is buried in a Google search, is here.
Associated Press: "Tipping Point" author Malcolm Gladwell posits the secret to success with Outliers.
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.
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