Laws that choke creativity | Larry Lessig

www.ted.com Larry Lessig, the Nets most celebrated lawyer, cites John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights and the "ASCAP cartel" in his argument for reviving our creative culture.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes -- including speakers such as Jill Bolte Taylor, Sir Ken Robinson, Hans Rosling, Al Gore and Arthur Benjamin. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, politics and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at
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[@kidmecha]

Amazing speech, very moving and well spoken. Born with prohibitions, so true, I never realized the intense limits we face. I knew they were bad but not this bad...

[@mantaq10]

00:26 History of trespass laws (and the challenge of aeroplanes) 04:20 Business model of the music industry (and the challenge of broadcasting technology) 07:29 The internet as a potential medium for remixing 12:01 Is remixing piracy? 15:26 The Economy of Influence and the limitations of policy makers 17:20 The artist's choice and our future generations

[@GetMeThere1]

Best TED talk ever. It addresses Technology itself, and a significant part of it's usage. It probes the very heart of Entertainment. And it relates to a great deal that's on the cutting edge in Design. For me personally, it addresses the important issue of CONTROL. As ever more people do ever more things of all sorts, there's a reflex for ever more CONTROL. We must greatly mitigate efforts at CONTROL.

[@MultiZivile]

I love the way he presents his ideas - simple and smart at the same time.

[@GhostInTheShell29]

I remember writing a post on a youtube video about politics and gun control. I thought it was a really good post, kinda poetic in a way. That pointed out a lot of peoples hypocrisy and bias on the issue. It got a lot of thumbs ups was rather proud of it. Two years later see the same exact post, posted by someone else on a video about the same issue. Had over a 150 thumbs ups. In a way I was really happy my idea was getting noticed by so many... but I lost any credit for it.

[@CearaQC]

Creativity is dangerous. If we never wonder how or why, then we are much easier controlled. "All this machinery Making modern music Can still be open-hearted Not so coldly charted Its really just a question Of your honesty" - from Spirit of Radio by Rush

[@corran24]

it's not about expecting people to work for free. it's about allowing those who wish to express their ideas and innovations freely (and for free) do so without restriction. however, although we are legally allowed to satire, spoof and parody, copyright law restricts and deters serious "remixing" of intellectual property. it has always been the case that people take old ideas and improve upon them, that is how innovation comes about. if we amputate creativity with the law, we only hurt ourselves.

[@n5o670]

Lower the volume on the intro.. My god. RIP to all earphone users

[@jessicareynolds3181]

ikr.. every single video.

[@philipheard2304]

"Welcome to TED talks... Where we bang your eardrums violently with sound at the start of every damn video."

[@MarkPineLife]

it was loud

[@hobgoblinlkjfdsa]

Tone deafness is a term that tends to be applied to a constellation of music processing, perceptual, and production deficits. Tone deafness does not refer to a difficulty with the ears, but to a lack of training. Tone-deaf singers frequently have severe constrictions around their vocal chords. Normally, they have had tension in this region for such a long time that they no longer notice it.

[@politiek]

He's not talking about giving it away for free. What he says is that if you have it, which means you bought it, you get the right to play with it. Once you've done that, it means you created something unique yourself. He wants the liberty for that, and the liberty of that 'artist' to show that piece to whomever he or she wants. What he really wants is to find that balance and avoid the opposite extremes he talks about.

[@thebeattrustee]

the idea is that you would have that right too. And it's not stealing, you're not being deprived of something you already have. It's not even a lost sale, because the person wouldn't necessarily have bought your album in the first place. It's a lost sale at worst and is more often than not free exposure. Maybe if the music industry stopped suing their customers and actually offered something people wanted to buy, we wouldn't be in this mess

[@WarzSchoolchild]

Larry Lessig makes his points well, in a presentation that on both content and style would be hard to beat. An object lesson in the 'craft' of Public Address. Bravo! Full Marks!

[@scatterlogical]

Nobody is disputing your right to credit for your bright ideas - in fact, everyone should be given due credit. If we are to stifle that right, we can stifle innovation and creativity. But on the same token, what good is your creativity if you keep it under lock and key, and cripple the way others can build upon it with their own innovation? This is what copyright laws and patent laws currently try to do - they restrict creativity and innovation, which ultimately doesn't benefit anyone.

[@heavytransit]

@rycka1983 and in the case of Megaupload for example they cant be held accountable for the sharing either, because they were not selling you the files shared in the website they sold you a faster download and upload of the files by giving you more space in their servers. people were the ones who uploaded the content not the site owners, it is the same as youtube. and they of course were not saying that the movies shared were theirs so… no real piracy nor plagiarism on that case.

[@ananiasacts]

I've started to address this with a blog, but the short answer is measurement. I believe we can measure damn near anything we can conceive of. It might take us a long time to measure the ludicrously abstract, but this is an area of expertise that scientists excel at. You might even say that measurement was a big part of inspiring science. If we want a fair world, shouldn't we begin by quantifying exactly how, where, and why it is unfair now? That's pretty much all I'm saying.

[@mfrancis107]

It is his style. Just like a musician or a writer, a presenter needs a style and that is his. The pictures with the black and white background and text. I personally felt like it was a bit too much, but I still observed his presentation to help me create my own style. You may not like everything a musician does, but it does not detour from the fact that they are a good musician. Larry Lessig is an excellent presenter.

[@BurakkuHishou]

Tell me, as a person who is learning to create video games where does the creativity end while copyright stays intact. Nearly everything has been designed, nearly everything has been thought of, nearly every angle exposed. Constantly the art in this media depicts architecture made by somebody just put in a digital style, historic and fantasy events are put in a way that people can experience, and methods or approaches to content are used and then re-used. Copyright is what is stifling creativity

[@441842]

This is probbly the best argument I have heard in my life, and I'm in second year of law school.

[@etharooni]

Amazing presentation. One of the best I've seen on Ted.

[@alexQuantizes]

easily my favorite presentation from TED or otherwise

[@LiberalViewer]

Excellent! 5 stars and added to favorites! I wonder, however, if the computer and internet technologies that are giving ordinary people back their cultural voices can help give ordinary people back their political voice as well. If the power of the internet can be used to rally political support for anything, it should be for internet rights, including fair use. Thx 4 uploading this great video :-)

[@mrispens]

@jtropeano it's not really about anarchy, it's about redefining who can own what, and what others may or may not do with that

[@TiberiousNeruda]

Got a few points, so my statement may span a couple comments: 1) The 'AMV' shown (it could be anything, really) -is- a creative work, as it's an audiovisual collage, albeit a rudimentary one. Mash-ups and (limited) sampling are much the same. 2) I feel the speaker is incorrect in that there is a main 'bad guy' as it relates to copyright law: none other than Walt Disney. Every time the first Mickey Mouse cartoon nears Public Domain, another copyright term extension is passed.

[@goodspeed1]

16:11 ...we need is two types of changes. First, that artists and creators embrace the idea-- CHOOSE, that their work be made available more freely.

[@Anthony22213]

Spot on observation Clankdank. This is how young Vladimir came to power. He slowly gained control of all art and media such as it was at the time. Anyone who opposed him and his régime dissapeared.

[@UniversalBrother108]

95% of what is deemed 'piracy' has nothing to do with that sort of hypothetical situation. Simply record labels , film studios, and others who 'copyright' material need to think of new ways to protect and profit from their media. Sharing stuff online is not going to end, the industry needs to change. It is really a blessing to have so many people advertising and promoting your art, there just needs to be a system to make it profitable for everyone,especially the artist.

[@yellowhue30]

..profitability went up as a result. Unfortunately, the interplay of cost cutting eventually levels off, while the expectation of rising profitability does not, and so prices of the final product must rise to meet expectations. This leads to an unsustainable trend as the consumer bases purchasing power can not raise in per-portion to expectation. To prolong growth the consumer base must be expanded without loosing to much control over distribution. But the internet's expanded beyond con.

[@alchemyst2000]

Alex Regalbuto I make digital music and grew up since I was 15 doing such. I am never sure how much I'm breaking the law by being creative. sampling and resampling and remixing. I wholeheartedly agree with this lecture that the cc laws prohibiting the remaking of music should be retracted and reconstructed to fit within the realms of the current art forms. Legalize creativity!!! ;0 reuse, recycle, renew

[@8legsFreak]

I absolutely agree with mister Lessig. That speech reminded me of Cory Doctorow books, he fokuses in them on similar topics(and many more). If you haven't did that yet, read Doctorow's book "Little brother" (google it its for free as an ebook) it's awesome and will blow your mind.(especialy if you live in US or EU).

[@karenmiscisin5052]

You go dude. You said, so eloquently, what keeps me awake at night! THANKS

[@SpankinMusic]

Lessig's work has greatly informed this thesis I'm writing on the disconnect between Copyright and social realities. Cheers!!

[@whalenbrowne]

I used to pirate things quite a bit as a kid, because it is just so easy. Now I work for a company that makes games that people can pirate and I find myself staying away from it. However, the securities that people take to stop pirating is getting absolutely ridiculous. To the point at which it alters the product in a bad way.

[@SitWithItBob]

Best TED talk in a while. Elegant, clever, relevant.

[@anarkoFred]

Creative Common is not suppose to replace CopyRight. Creators are choosing if they want their creations protected by CopyRight or CreativeCommon. Creative Common is meant to give the opportunity to creators to specify what rights they want on their creations.

[@TB3000]

I know it's not the point, but to allow creative application of copyrighted material is usually more of an asset than a detriment in the first place: The reason I've bought most of the CDs that I own is because I heard it in the background of someone's youtube video. How many times have you seen some video and half of the comments were, 'what song were you playing?'. Recording artists and record companies are getting unprecedented exposure and laws that they don't command are stifling it.

[@DmitrySamoilov007]

Copyright does not encompass remixed works. Taking parts of existing works and combining them into something new is not theft.

[@JamesTheFox]

Yes. And if this were any other industry, the promoters - in this case, publishers and labels - would be working for the artists, not the other way around. Copyright has set up this weird hierarchy where a business (artists' services) ends up being employed by advertisers. Also, it is hard to compete in the creative industry without giving up your copyrights to a higher business - the only other option is to self publish, which is an unfair burden. By definition, these are unfair conditions.

[@CetraTJ]

Good talk! Copyright laws and intellectual property laws need to be abolished. It goes against human rights to own an idea, and generally, the laws oppress the people. Copyright/Intel laws are not that old, they're a new idea (and a bad one) spanning only the last 150 years.

[@biz4m]

The open forum for creativity is something that any artist would support. The idea of someone re-using my work is flattering. However, There is a dark side. This creativity, this work, is how I make my living. Owning the rights to my work is how I feed myself. I believe that there needs to be a "meta-data" that is traceable online. A way for everyone to follow the paper trail and see who all was involved. Give credit where due. We need to learn how to share with reciprocation..

[@IamTheSherm]

1.Take your own advice. Tesla's wireless transmission plans were based on physics that have been disproved. The Wardenclyffe tower would not transmit power more than a few hundred yards, and each one would require a source of power orders of magnitude larger than our grid system to even do that much. 2. AC power is sinusoidal, meaning the average current and voltage as a function of time is 0. DC power has a constant steady state, but can't be transmitted very far due to parasitic resistance.

[@heyyJosh]

I think he may have overestimated that all 'kids' want to remix existing material. As a 'kid' I guess I can say that. But what's really good about this speech is that he addresses the way in which all of these websites are such amazing resources because they allow anybody to contribute to culture and youth culture - by boradcasting videos on youtube, or a creating myspace page, or blog. Awesome.

[@iceagecoming]

this is a great talk although i wish he had gone into more detail on how the law could change to accomodate these new uses of copyrighted material.

[@DavidBall67]

This, as an issue, is very close to my heart. I dread the possibility that the stuff I do will be noticed, as I crave that it will be seen. I really appreciate the work that people like Steve Jobs, at Icompositions does to allow the creative artist the ability to collaborate.

[@madogmgd]

The ability to think for yourself is more valuable than all of the gems in the world.

[@EdiFerreiranet]

1º Creative Common Comment (CCC) This comment is free to use everywhere and the way you want :)

[@xxX_420BlazeIt_Xxx]

+Edi Ferreira 1º Creative Common Comment (CCC) use This comment everywhere you want and to free is the way :)

[@nick_1312]

I'm a little late to the party, but artists hardly profit from selling their CD (unless they sell millions upon millions of them). The most they get from that (again, usually) is publicity (which is also what they get from piracy, only without having to deal with record labels). Most money comes from concerts, merchandise, etc., and you can't pirate those things. This only sometimes works with the film industry, since a lot of sales come through the theatre...

[@ashleylovesdaddy]

These words should be heard from tops of all the mountains in the world.

[@crazedkid103]

@Hufflewaffle As Death says, it isn't about bringing people together in a physical sense, it's more about bringing people together in both a societal and emotional bond. Instead of singing songs on the porch you're talking to your friend saying, "Hey man you totally need to check this video out." I agree with your point that social interaction/contact is being ignored, however it is impossible to ignore the impact upon our society that such content has created.

[@Jonyrijo]

with regards to creators income, there are many ways that can be accomplished: self-promotion (which leads to being hired to make requested works, live performances), advertisements/sponsorships, kickstarters style fundings, donations.

[@gahr23]

This is the Fourth Speak I listen to. Up to now, I like them all. Excellent idea to do such important events like these. Greetings From Peru German Huamancaja Reyes

[@tedoymisojos]

Lovely. These kinds of meetings shuld happen worldwide and be distributed through the mainstream media.

[@NikiWonoto26]

i love how you said it, perfect. i myself am a musician/artist, and i personally would hella agree & even very happy were my music compositions was being "remixed" by some KZbinrs. as tickingclock said correctly, view this positively as a "free publicity" for your music/art. it's brilliant: creative people helping other creative people. instead of "big" business-people stifling creative-people.

[@pipefx64]

You need to look at something like the Radiohead album In Rainbows. The band originally released it on their website with a price tag decided by the consumer; it could be anything from 1p to £1000. The vast majority of people, however, paid around £7, a fair price for an album. tickingclocks48 is right, as people will still buy the work even if it's freely available, and the artist should also be constantly reminded that they're not supposed to be in it for the money.

[@rogerwilco2]

Lessig explains is very well. I think there is a real problem, especially in the USA, but also over here in the EU on the validity of democracy. It's worse in the US two party system, because it doesn't allow a group like the Pirate Party to exist and gain seats. The Pirate Party shouldn't exist, but it's a cry for help by the younger generations who are now active voters in larger and larger numbers. Copyright should not need to be a generation fight if our democracies worked better.

[@bernardogrossi2018]

Absolutely, the best TED presentation to this day.

[@LtuDaniel]

The problem is, that most people actually do not try to. It is not about the money thought, if we start to get deeper into this subject, we might see that progress as fenomena has changing its face into some other unknown form of materia.

[@ninaflute]

Very interesting and gave me a lot to think about as I myself navigate this world of new media. Thanks.

[@msam1970]

TED is the Best! BritishDominion of the USA Lionel & Diana. Midway through, How TRUE!

[@uconnstudent]

this was a very well planned out video. great balance on seriousness and comedy. more youtube viewers need to watch this :)

[@detriplea]

The balance is what we are already in.

[@shawnyama1725]

this guy predicted memes

[@yoyan638]

Shawn Yama this guys trying to save memes

[@gentlefury]

sadly 3 years later and this is still relevant! I really wish more artists would embrace creative commons.

[@adahlfin]

Thank you for posting this! I just had to make sure it wasn't already here before I posted it myself.

[@alchemyst2000]

I make digital music and grew up since I was 15 doing such. I am never sure how much I'm breaking the law by being creative. sampling and resampling and remixing. I wholeheartedly agree with this lecture that the cc laws prohibiting the remaking of music should be retracted and reconstructed to fit within the realms of the current art forms. Legalize creativity!!! ;0

[@artman40]

For those who think using someone else's work isn't creativity, should check out Kutiman's songs. Also the opposite applies too as creating a song from scratch can still result it being unoriginal and uncreative.

[@tapiwakay]

Well said man/gal! The only thing i'm against is pure piracy where one replicates an orginal (without remixing) and sells it for money. I don't think we will ever be able to battle that kind of piracy.

[@lba10]

Wow... Powerful stuff, core-truth and solid direction, it's NICE, very nice to see and hear.

[@cheekychen]

communication evolves with the development of technology. Before there was print, the masses were illiterate. New media, I think you'll agree, can be used as a language in its own right. If you found the imagery distracting you can look away, however if you were hard of hearing, perhaps it would provide more benefit? I think it help pronounce key points of the lecture and helped the viewer to structure it in their mind. peace ,v,,

[@kevin120857]

I think Souza was also saying that he valued making music over passively listening music. The downside of technology is its capacity to induce passivity in observers.

[@spacedtime6597]

I agree with DavidWitalec. Artists need to make their money in new ways. No need to protect the artists and Labels. If they all go bust, and new are of music creation will begin. Music is, and will be from this age onward, FREE. Music will survive.

[@MattTyrrellOfficial]

Saw Lessig speak in Bowling Green. He is a very good voice for digital media!

[@morganssongs8834]

But in internet land you can't set a line between amateur and professional use. Amateur use can become commercial use overnight. Like the Red Lobster employee that became the owner of the entire "Grumpy Cat" line after her friend posted a picture of her cat.

[@jamesbrecknell]

The problem that Larry describes - of "making people's behaviour illegal" - is one that I don't believe exists. He says it's corrosive to have our children grow up in a world where their "remixing" of existing works is seen as illegal by default. I disagree. I think it's an issue that barely exists in the scheme of things. The solution he proposes is one that already exists. If people want to create work to be used freely, they can. Ultimately Larry's message undermines the value of creators.

[@fauxman]

wow that conclusion is absolutely fantastic

[@stillfilm]

Culture has always been changing influencing other coultures around them, you can belive what you want, cinema and coulture was not founded on anything, it has evolved out of it, and it will never stop evolving.

[@goodspeed1]

...And second, we need the businesses that are building out this read-write culture to embrace this opportunity expressly-- to enable it. So that this ecology of free content or freer content can grow on a neutral platform where they both exist simultaneously. So that more free can compete with less free. And the opportunity to develop the creativity in that competition can teach one the lessons of the other.

[@andy4an]

I wish it were easier to consume ethically. I don't want to steal from anyone, nor do I want to put up with something clearly ridiculous. It's getting harder and harder to satisfy both of these desires.

[@FeelFreetoDie]

+weesh ful Well pirating isn't "stealing" it&'s illegally copying and sharing it to others. Now whether or not sharing should be illegal or to what extent it should be illegal is the question. Kinda weird how an artist deserves to have his works monopolized for his entire life plus 80 years. Also extra weird when it was originally supposed to be only 20 years (flat) and that was in the age when it was hard to distribute media and ideas and that length of time would be necessary.

[@RadicalDreamer17]

@L571J You may pirate concerts and such... but seriously, concerts are meant to be LIVED (and I may enjoy a movie a bit more at the theatre). Pirated videos cannot replace the living sensations, that's why I think people still and will continue to attend concerts.

[@debraparker7109]

This is so cleverly funny witth an undeniable message that good business alwAys makes sense.

[@djdeluxe76]

I wish the MPIAA execs would see this... the man speaks the truth. It was always my belief that whoever comes up with a platform that strikes the right balance in monetizing and creative freedom is sitting on a goldmine. iTunes was a step in the right direction but there is still much to be done.

[@rationalCrash]

the jesus I survive snippet is brilliant! i especially like the ending.

[@ckildegaard]

@rycka1983 It is an extreme. One extreme is saying that all rights are reserved and not letting anyone do anything with your work. The other extreme is blatently refusing to honor that principle.

[@IamTheSherm]

It's not a matter of "knowing how", but a matter of having access to the capital and resources. For example, if Tesla had not been given exclusive rights to his AC generation technology, what purpose would he have to share it with Westinghouse to construct a power plant at Niagara Falls? If you can't recoup your Research and Design costs, you have no incentive to invest in that Research and Design to begin with. The opportunity to profit from your ideas is what built our economy in America.

[@aquaajb]

I listened to this with DJ Tiësto in the background. It was trippy man. Real, real trippy.

[@ChanQian]

the speach is great,just watch it on TED,and want to find it on youtube,and,,there it is.

[@HuckleberrySlim]

for the love, not for the money. somebody that thinks the only thing they need in life is money is going to make a lot of unpopular decisions. for the love not the money is a daily choice decider, a life affector for sure. if you choose one way or the other on that idea now, you will be a DIFFERENT person tomorrow, five years, 20 years down the line, for whichever choice you make on it. its a big choice. we are here to experience and create beauty. soo....im going with that choice.

[@secretadmirer8769]

I hope so. But better sooner than later. I'm hoping to make some good progress towards this myself.

[@molewizard]

I wouldn't say he wants to remove copyright law - His point is that most people don't even know they're breaking the law - And most people simply would not consider it breaking the law. It's like the airplane analogy. Most people break the law on the internet hundreds of times a day, without even realising it.

[@Jonyrijo]

+ BTW at least with me I noticed CCL works I like generally more, especially in music, but also in short movies. maybe it's the creators general stance towards their own work that affects and transpires-into their work; as in: they are less possessive of their work, more sharing, and that attitude affects their work positively.

[@philnoll]

One of the best talks. He's really on point when he's talking about the state of the world. This is NWO resistance without all the hype.

[@samosx21]

music made is based on what may be "cool." Hence what the culture. It's all about culture, what's allowable and what's not. It's the perfect word.

[@JarrodTurner]

@DavidWitalec I think you're wrong. When RA ink a deal with a label they get a cash advance to make the record. A lot of times $100,000. They have to tour to make that money back and promote the CD. Music Sales are a huge part of an artists bread. Merchandise accounts for some, licensing, ect. The record is a key part of the artists resume and an amazing artform. It's like saying that drawing is ok but painting is outdated.

[@RadicalDreamer17]

@vvblues I personally like to do fanarts because I love the original works. Now tell me : How can I "do my own work" if the point is to pay tribute to something ? People like me do not considerate ourselves thiefs of any kind. We're just fans... sharing and paying tributes to the original artists. By the way, I still do my own work (and I would feel more honored than robbed if some fans produced fanworks out of it... as long as they don't sell it or claim my work as their own).

[@ArksunSound]

Raises some very good points for everyone to think about this video. Added to favourites.

[@detriplea]

the point is not that I liked them but how important they are. I bet you would have appreciate them more if you were an independent filmmaker.

[@jamesbrecknell]

Larry says the illegality of using content creatively is like the "tresspassing" of planes over land. I disagree. The planes over land situation was about people having unnecessary property rights that the world didn't foresee other people needing. That's not the case with the copyrights of artistic creators. They exist to protect and place value on the work of creators. If they create to send to end-users, then protecting their rights protects the value of their industriousness.

[@Paulginz]

Well... let's put things this way: There's the big rich and famous commercial musician stars, and the little indie groups. Indie groups already acknowledge that filesharing increases their revenue because it increases their visibility. The stars on the other hand make a big chunk of their profit from royalties on CD sales. HOWEVER, experiments by radiohead and 9-inch-nails show unexpectedly that it's possible for them to increase profits by adopting a "pay as much as you like" policy.

[@GeracaodeValor]

wow!

[@simoneleone]

Thanx for sharing this. An excellent perspective!

[@teph2222]

No one who works purely for money can perfect their art Copyright exists because corporate record labels have made it so The ones gaining from this are not musicians and artists, but CEOs and managers