Lessig's Distance from Remix

My first foray into remix culture actually occurred a couple years ago in Dr. Andrew Mara’s English 275 class. One unit required that we remix the Phaedrus. I’ll be honest and say that I am perhaps one of the most uncreative people when it comes to arts and entertainment stuff. I have neither created a mixed tape nor written, much less thought, of placing myself in a novel or movie. Needless to say, Doc’s assignment was difficult for me. Since that experience, remix culture has come front and center in the nation’s spotlight via the SOPA/PIPA debacle.

The widespread panning by internet lovers everywhere led to the shelving of the bills SOPA/PIPA, for now at least. Had those bills not gotten the attention they did, however, I don't think Lessig's Remix would have packed the punch it did when I read it. It is interesting to note, however, that Lessig was largely absent in the debate. He was called out by Jeff Roberts as to why on paidcontent.org: http://m.paidcontent.org/article/419-why-is-lawrence-lessig-mia-in-the-great-sopa-piracy-debate/ . Lessig responded via his blog: http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/13119510676/me-mia-on-the-sopa-soap-opera. Lessig’s response in essence stems from the fact that he feels there are deeper levels of corruption happening at the governmental level that require fixing before what he deems more surface level though still important things, like copyright and intellectual property, can be changed.

To go back to my English 275 class for a moment, part of the reason I think I had so much difficulty in Doc’s class is because I am too enveloped in the copyright culture of the West. My high school English teachers were sticklers about citation. I am an avid reader and vividly recall reading about the fallout of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" illegally sampling from Queen and Bowie's "Under Pressure." These and other experiences have stuck with me through my time in higher education. It is therefore difficult, prior to the SOPA/PIPA hullabaloo at least, to remove myself from my historical and geographic context, again not being the creative type, and consider how to make changes of the scale Lessig talks about.

Now that the impact of what these laws would have done to the internet if they had been passed into law has been made clear by way of the myriad websites that either blacked out or ran their content as if under SOPA/PIPA regulations, Lessig's argument that we are turning our children into criminals for what they naturally, and harmlessly, do anyway can be expanded to include people who run some of the most popular and useful derivative and apropriation websites on the internet.

Question for class: Do you think the SOPA/PIPA bills getting the (largely negative) exposure they did has made the vast swath of America more invested in changing Copyright/IP laws.