Lessig on Ethics - Sort of
Lawrence Lessig recently posted a very interesting piece on his site entitled “The Ethics of Web 2.0.” For those unfamiliar with the term Web 2.0 it is a phrase coined by O’Reilly Media in 2004 in order to describe a sort of second wave of Internet services. These services, like social networking, tagging, etc. are prominently seen in sites like Flickr, del.icio.us, and some would argue, MySpace. The main characteristics of Web 2.0 are community, sharing, open source, and user generated (and defined) content. In all, it’s incredibly exciting and incredibly important that you determine a way to understand both the nature of this movement, and how it applies to your music related activities. In his post, Lessig talks about the difference between Web 2.0 sites that aggregate user generated content in a “true sharing” manner versus those who do so via “fake sharing.” He makes this distinction thus: A “true sharing” site doesn’t try to exercise ultimate control over the content it serves. It permits, in other words, content to move as users choose. A “fake sharing” site, by contrast, gives you tools to it make seem as if there’s sharing, but in fact, all the tools drive traffic and control back to a single site. In this sense, YouTube is a fake sharing site, while Flickr, (parts of) Google, blip.tv, Revver and EyeSpot are true sharing sites. He elaborates by saying the YouTube is a fake sharing site because while they allow people to contribute content, they don’t allow people “an easy way to actually get the content someone else has uploaded.” He then goes on to list sites such as Flickr, blip.tv, EyeSpot, and Revver who all make it easy for people to not only upload content, but also download the content to do with it what they please (no DRM, etc.); in other words, truly share. This is important, Lessig makes the point, because, if you agree with the philosophy of Web 2.0, then, axiomatically, as O’Reilly noted, “the service automatically gets better the more people use it.” It also allows for “remixability,” and all of the other things that “hoarding” or controlling content does not. Lessig believes that this remixability that is such a crucial factor to Web 2.0, and, of course, to his entire message regarding Creative Commons is the only “ethical” manner in which to operate. While I must take a slight bit of issue with his use of the word ethics here (I think something like “best practices” might be more appropriate, thought also certainly…uh…more boring), I take no issue whatsoever with his message. The continued evolution of the Internet, and particularly, the Internet as distribution mechanism and community aggregator as it relates to music is dependent on this idea of true, rather than fake, sharing. Judicious application of this true sharing in your marketing efforts is what will help you attract and retain a constituency for your music over the long-term. GH  
|
||
