Let's keep on sharing!

I was very interested in the chapters we had to read from the Lawrence Lessig book Free Culture. The history of copyright in various mediums and the changes that came with new technologies which allowed for new distribution methods allow us today to look at the contemporary internet situation and theorize on how things will change in the future.

Lawrence Lessig makes a very interesting argument on the need for more adaptable and nuanced laws in order to avoid a generation of people who essentially are criminals under the current law system.

The internet is a fascinating and challenging new development in society and the creation of file sharing programs do harm artists in many respects. However, the current fight to criminalize all file sharing is pointless and immoral. As Lessing correctly points out, the file sharing which takes place is not only the illegal kind. For many users, file sharing is a means of advertisement, research, exploration and a nostalgic means of reexploring their pasts.

Given the power of computers and related technologies to save information easily and for eternity, file sharing allows society to access more information and allows pieces that haven't received much attention to remain in the public sphere, to exist... File sharing allows for users to scour the web for diverging opinions, rare culture, past culture and different culture.

This new distribution model is inescapable and the fallacy of trying to illegalize it because some harm is done is wrong. The harm done is also balanced with positives; the space for rare works, the ability to market yourself even without large corporate backing, the access to more variety....

Copyright laws need to take into account the emergence of these trends, and find a system where what is punished is not the technology which allows us to share files but the illegal d/l and use of information that has been copyrighted with the explicit purpose of not allowing such behavior. For the rest of information out there, let the sharing continue.