THINK THINK.....why do we pay for culture

Lawrence Lessig argues that culture is being slowly fenced off and requiring payment before it can be enjoyed or experienced. Briefly explain the evidence he uses, and then give an example of this that he does not discuss in his book.

i gotta write a paper on this shit. jokes are welcome but more serious content is wanted. its basically talking about how big corporations are taking over entire areas of content, and then trying to monopolize the shit. for example, ATT bought a shitload of wireless and is trying to stifle other people from competing and charging more for less

things we already pay for

-wireless

-tv

-magazine

-porn

-we pay to use other peoples copyrights

things we dont pay for yet

-the open content on the internet

help a dumbass out

We don't pay for culture, we pay for the opportunity to be exposed to culture (thereby absorbing those ideas and being free to recommunicate said ideas freely)

We pay for copyrights because without the original there would be no imitators.

Sounds like the premise you've been given is better stated "why do we pay for POP culture" and that's more probably about being accepted or considered 'on the cutting edge'.

oh and porn is free, give your teacher my email and I'll flow her some links...

listen to your heart

smart, please lace these pages with more of your wisdom. i need ideas to copy off of haha

We get charged for exposure to most culture... people have tried, but nobody has figured out how to make me buy graffiti yet.

we pay for the opportunity to be exposed to culture

Which is just as absurd.

Lawrence Lessig rules.

im lovin the responses, but i need more ideas to throw into this paper!! ive used smarts lines at least 4 times already

first off 'culture' is a broad term...the way youre using it sounds more like the commodity of culture.

culture as commodity is a cheaper resource then actually designing and manufacturing new ideas.

through cultural significance you can sell the same base item.. lets say a shoe.. and do 50 different variations to it and make the consumer believe they are buying different 'desireable objects' that are of different worth then the original base object.

some companies call this tier design..its the way to stretch the buck..

in the 90's comics had variant covers, in the early 2000's there were variant shoes..

this model really has been prevalent for a long time.

cars are a great example.

you can buy a car...lets call it.. car MODEL X.

base model x: economy...at x amount

base model x: deluxe with AC stereo, sun roof power windows

base modelx: limited same as above leather seats, better stereo.

ultimately companies are guaranteed a sale of x amount for x model.. and with a bit of repackaging and verbage make x model..into x model limited edition for pretty much the same price.

this system applies to super sizing a value meal, a bbq grill, a bike, clothes.

blah blah blah.

Which is just as absurd.

You know, I don't think it is... time was... way back that you had 2 chances to be exposed to culture. You could be rich and circulate with the peolpe that could afford to commission Master works, or you could be lucky and find something awesome in a museum (which still needs a 'donation' to fix the roof and pay the bills) and doesn't even guarantee that they understood what they were looking at.

Think about the invention of moveable type, and Guttenberg's press. Not just the physical invention but the cultural revolution comprised there in. Before that writers of all types wrote in Latin. Really the only ones that could do that were either very wealthy or in the church. Suddenly, you had people writing, and most importantly publishing, work in the vernacular. Overnight the common man was granted access to the hallowed halls of the written word. Is it too much to ask for a little monetary compensation to cover the production costs of the first book they read? What about the 'karmic' (I hate that word) concept that paying for that book also validates and supports the teacher who taught you/them to decipher the lettersin the first place (vernacular or not)...

In an off hand way this relates to that argument I had in PJibs thread about teaching english abroad where I asked "when is it ethically wrong to teach anyone anything anywhere at anytime?" and that butthead I argued with's point about how teachers shouldn't do it for the money.

Everyone needs to eat, give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and I should collect a tax perpetually on every fish he catches... or, more realistically, a one time fee for a lifetime skill.

Art appreciation, and I'm including all aspects of culture under the banner of 'art; here... anyway, Art appreciation is a skill too. Notice how many people totally missed the idea about that Afghan rug in that other thread, I mean, I admit it was confusing but over about a minute I sussed it down to it's basic ideas and questioned the motivation where others went another full page mostly missing the point. Not saying I exclusively figured it out but there were a few people that totally missed the boat on that one...

So, isn't it worth something, money, food, something for someone to help open the doors of perception?

on a semi-side note, noone sells dirty magazines in my

area, and im not gonna jerk it to a comic.

time to take off the blocker and google porn

spank mags are SO '85

alrite im done with this shit

hopefully i will get a C

props to harvey for that graffiti line. i got at least a page of how hip hop has been exploited and controlled by the big businesses. hip hop was the best answer to what lawrence lessig ddnt talk about

damn smart, i really want to use that teach a man to fish and i shall tax his ass line...but i dont know where to fit it

maybe in the future? ill pay you for the culture haha

yeah and you can quote the 'arrested development: unplugged' album

...im just kidding.. good luck failing your paper.

im lovin the responses' date=' but i need more ideas to throw into this paper!! ive used smarts lines at least 4 times already[/quote']

 

 

make sure you reference him or you'll get get expelled for plagerism

^shit man, I ain't proud, he can have that stuff for free...

what do you consider culture anyways

who says we pay for it

its what one personally values that really matters

this is an easy topic dude, i dont see why you need 12oz to answer the question

its pretty broad

culture is picked like a crop and sold by commercial america...

then it gets exhausted and they move on to the next culture....ya dig?

remember when a lot more spanish music started hitting the air waves and hispanic actors started coming out more and gaining a little more fame?

agriculture, popular culture...

Some peeps say culture when they mean civilization or society. Some peeps hate culture because it appears to be competing with the sports pages.

Maybe if everyone agrees it's something thought out, processed and made by a man, we can fairly understand each other.

anyway I guess a good example of corruption/exploitation of culture would be people who get paid for hustling around but don't take part of the actual creative process. In music industry for example a band like metallica is told: "you guys lose 100.000.000 $ every day because of internet"

Of course they buy it, and want to do something about it. what they don't think is that there're lots of peeps in between them and the fans that are getting paid for the distribution, marketing and other shit. In internet that shit's ridiculously cheap

I'm not sure how many bucks bands like them have spent on copyright protection, studio security, lawyers and other shit... but something tells me that paying to prevent people from hearing your music isn't as smart as, maybe to let go of some peeps making coffee&photocopies and really take advantage of internet as a media.

I'm sure- In fact I know there's a shitload of bands who don't give a fuck if their albums are being shared for free, because they know more peeps will come to their shows. And not because their song is on MTV prime time but because their album kicks ass and everyone can hear some of it for free.

There's still lots of people who want to get that CD and leaflet because the music, lyrics and layout are so fucking awesome. In my eyes, this "piracy" shit just takes care of all the bullshit product-bands that are consisted of shit-for-brains kids straight from a dance school, put together by a business man-- with the shared motivation of getting lots of money.

If I wasn't starving I could go on about the motherfucking annual volcano/mars/asteroid/hurricane pieces of shit for movies, or MTV and how they have nothing to do with music and everything to do with irrelevant and scripted reality re-runs

hope this helps,

i wonder what itd be like to meet a sasquatch.

Phantom of the Opera would be rammed if it was free.