Theme Of Creativity In Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture

“Let’s kill all the lawyers!” A line from William Shakespeare’s Henry VI rings out following a struggle between the common people and English nobility. The theme of destroying those who wish to defeat creativity follows through the entirety of Lawrence Lessig’s book, Free Culture; How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. Lessig uses the imagery from the early stages of Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse, comparing the initial Steamboat Willie animation to that of Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jr. Although Keaton developed his character prior to Disney’s, Disney was able to expand on Keaton’s work to create the beloved character that is the staple of the Disney industry. On a similar note, Lessig discusses the idea of public domain by noting the works of the Grimm Brother’s fairy tales that Disney also drew from to create his many classic films. Although many of the original tales the Grimm Brother’s offer horrific endings, Disney expanded on these ideas with much more age appropriate fates and colorful animations. Lessig argues that often times, the law (and lawyers alike) infringe on creativity, leaving their creators unable to unleash their ideas simply because of similarities. Had Disney not reworked the ideas of Buster Keaton or the Grimm Brother’s no one would probably even recognize the

In the age of the Internet, it is impossible to place the same values on intellectual property as have been in the past. The way the Internet has grown and expanded, the laws policing it have not. Obsolete laws assumed that the material to be copyrighted was mostly in print form. At the time they were written, it was extremely difficult to cover recorded music or film. Now in an age where mass amount of data can be downloaded and manipulated, it simply isn’t