Andy Biao: Welcome to the New Prohibition

Our speaker at the January 2013 Portland/CreativeMornings was Andy Baio, writer and coder who loves making things. . The global theme for this month was “Reuse,” and Andy spoke about remix culture:

“Cut, copy, paste. The ability to reuse and remix is so deeply baked into our tools, it’s rewritten our culture. We learn to make great art by copying, and we participate in our culture by reusing and modifying what we see. But the law hasn’t caught up with our changing values, effectively criminalizing the creativity of millions. Cover songs on YouTube, fanfic, mashups, and supercuts all violate copyright, and lawyers are starting to find new tools to discover and enforce infringement. Welcome to the new Prohibition.”

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