Larry Lessig is on stage and unfortunately he won't be followed by Gilberto Gil this time around.
He starts telling the story of H.G. Wells' book " The Country of the Blind" passed on a village where everyone is blind and Nunez a non-blind visitor goes to a doctor that wants to remove his eyes.
Stop! Remix is nothing new. That's how cultures were created. Apple remixed, Bill Clinton remixed, we all do it. When we watch Michael Moore's film—for example—and thell our friends whether we loved it or hated it. That's remixing.
In world history remixing was never regulated. Remixing needs to be free; the ordinary ways of remixing. Ordinary ways are "word" and remixing text, writing is free.
What when the technology of remix changes? Do the freedoms change as well? He plays an audio snippet of the Grey Album. He mentions Tarnation, a film made with a budget of $218 that wowed Cannes. Follows some videos remixing Fox News and President Bush (liberal), John Kerry (conservative). The audience goes crazy with the video remix of Bush and Blair singing "My Endless Love". Always funny to watch it. "That's video creativity".
Not broadcast or NYT democracy but popular democracy. The question come back on screen: What when the technology of remix changes? Existing laws conflict with technology, laws need to be reformed (remixed?). Reform the law or reform the technology. Just like H.G. Wells story the powers to be want to reform technology, remove its eyes.
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Let's call "piracy" "piracy". Let's call "piracy" wrong. (Notice the quotes.)
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Teach how powerful the technology is.
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Demand changes in the law. Not a call for the end of intelectual property.
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Punish. Defend and oppose the law because it will destroy our technology.
