Piracy reading

     With the newest reading assignment, I was surprised to find out how far back the subject of piracy on media content went. With all the legal wranglings in the ten to fifteen years in regards to the illegal sharing of music and movies, one would think that pirating of creative property was something that came to be only recently, with the rise of access to the internet. In fact, these issues date back nearly a century, with the creation of the media types themselves: films, recorded music, radio, and cable TV.
      As Lessig states early on, "Every important sector of 'big media' today... was born of a kind of piracy so defined". The history of the media types described above is interesting, as it is really a story of those with the creative property (or patents controlling such things as technologies necessary for producing these creative works) and their struggle to maintain control of their content / abilities for content creation. In many cases, those that went against these established powers helped to shape the world we have today, at least in regards to how we access and consume media content. Many of those at the top of their respective industries have gotten where they are through the use of "piracy" in their own time, yet are now going on the offensive against acts of "piracy" that they determine to affect their own goals. This is interesting, as it makes these groups seem to be quite hypocritical. The debate over how content creators are best able to protect their creations and retain their right to make a profit through their works is still an ongoing discussion, although the many laws passed in the twentieth century have helped shaped them in their current form.
    I think Lessig phrased it best as he finished the chapter with, "Every generation welcomes the pirates from the last. Every generation - until now".