More importantly than that, people are producing and sharing their own cultural resources, publishing their own original photos, movies, music, writing. People are revelling in the opportunity to acquire and experience music, movies, TV, books, photos, essays and other materials that they would otherwise have missed out on and they picking up the creative ball and running with it, making their own version, remixes, mash-ups and derivative works. But now culture has moved from being physical artefacts that can be sold or performances that can be experienced to being collections of 1s and 0s that can be easily copied and exchanged. Previously, these rights guaranteed a steady income because the industry controlled supply and, in many cases, manufactured demand. Over the last hundred years, copyright term has been extended time and again by a creative industry eager to hold on to the exclusive rights to its most lucrative materials. Indeed, never before in human history have so many people had so much access to such a wide variety of cultural material, yet far from heralding a new cultural nirvana, we are facing a creative lock-down. Because of the net, materials once scarce are now ubiquitous. The Internet has connected people and cultures in a way that, just ten years ago, was unimaginable. Owen Chapman as part of the required reading for the Communication Studies degree. This piece is now being used by Concordia University’s Dr.
In May 2006, Michael Holloway and I wrote this article for the Journal of Media and Culture.
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