Web 2.0 and the dissolution of intellectual property
I’m working towards being a professional in the communication and design business. This means I am kept up to date on the trends in the media world. One of these trends - the next huge one - is nicknamed Web 2.0. It’s already a tired term, but it basically applies to social media (such as, for example, Livejournal, MySpace, forums, etc etc.). Medias that allow people to interact with one another through it. Communicate, exchange ideas, share material, solve assignments and whatever else you can think of.
One of the big issues of this - from a commercial point of view - is that material on the internet is easy for anyone to take and do with as they wish. The music and movie industry are fighting a losing battle against piracy.
With the exception of bands like Radiohead, who published their latest album on the internet for free download. Basically, people could choose how much they wanted to pay for it, or chose not to pay anything at all and just take the music.
Guess what? It looks like they’ll be making more on this album than all their former ones.
The way much of our generation, and certainly the next one, use the internet calls for the user to become co-creator, rather than just consumer. Content (and by content we mean any material distributed on the net) has become available for the wide masses to play with, to share, to use as they want, rather than the way the original creators of the material intended. The idea of property is becoming fluid, and companies that sit too tightly and hysterically on their rights in that regard are regarded as backward and lacking in innovative potential. They’re being left way behind by the companies who, rather than taking issue with it, sees the potential and makes good use of it. The idea of viral marketing has sprung up out of this, and basically means that you pusblish materials which is so inspiring and cool that you make people want to play with it, share it, make it their own.
An example. Pepsi made this viral. They spent 25 million DKr on it - this is about 5 million dollars. To date, it’s been viewed a total of about 100.000 times. It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out that this is a tad expensive per viewing.
Some college boys in Japan then made this, a few days after the official Pepsi add has been seeded. The cost: nothing. Views to date: 500.000+.
Word on the street is, rather than getting hysterical and starting lawsuits, Pepsi sent the boys a year’s supply of soda.
Clever of Pepsi.
Now, apart from the delightful perspectives in this, the reason I bring it up is that I was accused of stealing icons. It’s quite possible that the icons in question were indeed made by this girl; for the purpose of the exercise, we assume they were. I don’t know, because I’m terrible about keeping track of where I find icons and pictures, I keep them in a pile, and once I get around to using them, I have no idea any longer.
Now, as should be obvious from the above, I think the idea of intellectual property in this context is more than questionable. I know for a fact that the photos most of us use to make icons are definitely not photos we’ve taken ourselves. The universes we play in are inspired by books we didn’t write. Some of the characters we play are invented by people other than us. The music we listen to while playing them is illegally downloaded. In effect, stolen. And we don’t question this. We’re used to this being the way things are done. We’re web 2.0 users. We assume we can just do this, we interact with the media, we make it our own. This is, of course, the reason I’m not particular about remembering to credit. I do it if I’m asked to or if I remember it, but in the media world I’m used to thinking about, it doesn’t truly matter.
With this in mind, the accusation of theft strikes me as ridiculous. And to avoid hypocrisy, I’d like to take the opportunity to give away any and all icons of my own making that anyone might want, both the ones on my own journal and any character journals. If anyone wants them, they can take them. No credit, no commenting, no notification is needed. It anything of mine is good enough to be inspiring, to make someone want to use it, please, go ahead. (though, given my laziness in regards to remembering which icons are mine, you risk an attack from the less tolerant. Most of them are mine, though. If you feel inspired, I encourage you to dare to take the risk).
And on another note; please keep your perspective. We’re not starving in Darfur.
One of the big issues of this - from a commercial point of view - is that material on the internet is easy for anyone to take and do with as they wish. The music and movie industry are fighting a losing battle against piracy.
With the exception of bands like Radiohead, who published their latest album on the internet for free download. Basically, people could choose how much they wanted to pay for it, or chose not to pay anything at all and just take the music.
Guess what? It looks like they’ll be making more on this album than all their former ones.
The way much of our generation, and certainly the next one, use the internet calls for the user to become co-creator, rather than just consumer. Content (and by content we mean any material distributed on the net) has become available for the wide masses to play with, to share, to use as they want, rather than the way the original creators of the material intended. The idea of property is becoming fluid, and companies that sit too tightly and hysterically on their rights in that regard are regarded as backward and lacking in innovative potential. They’re being left way behind by the companies who, rather than taking issue with it, sees the potential and makes good use of it. The idea of viral marketing has sprung up out of this, and basically means that you pusblish materials which is so inspiring and cool that you make people want to play with it, share it, make it their own.
An example. Pepsi made this viral. They spent 25 million DKr on it - this is about 5 million dollars. To date, it’s been viewed a total of about 100.000 times. It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out that this is a tad expensive per viewing.
Some college boys in Japan then made this, a few days after the official Pepsi add has been seeded. The cost: nothing. Views to date: 500.000+.
Word on the street is, rather than getting hysterical and starting lawsuits, Pepsi sent the boys a year’s supply of soda.
Clever of Pepsi.
Now, apart from the delightful perspectives in this, the reason I bring it up is that I was accused of stealing icons. It’s quite possible that the icons in question were indeed made by this girl; for the purpose of the exercise, we assume they were. I don’t know, because I’m terrible about keeping track of where I find icons and pictures, I keep them in a pile, and once I get around to using them, I have no idea any longer.
Now, as should be obvious from the above, I think the idea of intellectual property in this context is more than questionable. I know for a fact that the photos most of us use to make icons are definitely not photos we’ve taken ourselves. The universes we play in are inspired by books we didn’t write. Some of the characters we play are invented by people other than us. The music we listen to while playing them is illegally downloaded. In effect, stolen. And we don’t question this. We’re used to this being the way things are done. We’re web 2.0 users. We assume we can just do this, we interact with the media, we make it our own. This is, of course, the reason I’m not particular about remembering to credit. I do it if I’m asked to or if I remember it, but in the media world I’m used to thinking about, it doesn’t truly matter.
With this in mind, the accusation of theft strikes me as ridiculous. And to avoid hypocrisy, I’d like to take the opportunity to give away any and all icons of my own making that anyone might want, both the ones on my own journal and any character journals. If anyone wants them, they can take them. No credit, no commenting, no notification is needed. It anything of mine is good enough to be inspiring, to make someone want to use it, please, go ahead. (though, given my laziness in regards to remembering which icons are mine, you risk an attack from the less tolerant. Most of them are mine, though. If you feel inspired, I encourage you to dare to take the risk).
And on another note; please keep your perspective. We’re not starving in Darfur.