“How Free is this Culture?”[1]
While reading Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technologies and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lassing, I remembered the polemic against Colombia’s Lleras Law in 2011.
Former Minister of the Interior and Justice, Germán Vargas Lleras, introduced new Internet copyright legislation with the goal of holding Internet providers responsible for copyright infringements made by their users. As soon as the news about this law broke out, the media as well as individuals on Facebook, Twitter and blogs reacted against the proposal. As Andres Izquierdo explained, the law “goes beyond the Agreement’s [FTA] requirements, putting in place restrictions beyond what the Agreement require, beyond what related international treaties allow.”[2]
Although the law did not go through, the fact that it was even proposed suggests the inability of Colombia’s legislators to create a balanced copyright law that defends and supports the flow of free culture. Lassing exposes this point in by saying that “the free culture that I defend in this book is a balance between anarchy and control.”[3]
Lassing’s book is full of examples in which he shows the importance of this balance in order to promote and produce culture. The Colombian case is no doubt one of them. Revista Semana, one of the most important news outlets in Colombia, explains that “what is interesting about this discussion [the discussion about the Lleras Law] is that even the critics of the law assure us that the issue is not about whether to abolish copyrights or not, but rather the way in which they are protected and how they can at the same time ensure that knowledge and culture are promoted and grow exponentially through digital media.”[4]
In Colombia, one example of a project that depends on digital media is the band DeJuepuchas (http://dejuepuchas.tumblr.com), whose music is inspired and produced based on other peoples’ and organizations’ web content. The band understands that the Internet is a never-ending repository of collective memories and knowledge.[5] The approval of the Lleras Law, would jeopardize and neglect the existence of their project because they would not be able to source others’ content from the Internet.
New technologies allow for and promote different ways to approach and access information. While copyright law is needed to some degree, lawmakers should be able to legislate in such a way that recognizes the positive impact that new technology gives society in producing and sharing information. I would choose a balanced piece of legislation that would guarantee projects like DeJuepuchas the freedom to use Internet based content to create new content.
[1] Lawrence Lessig. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technologies and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. Penguin: New York. p. 83
[3] Lawrence Lessig. Free Culture. p. 15
[4] Santiago La Rotta. “La Polémica ‘Ley Lleras.” Revista Semana. http://www.elespectador.com/impreso/vivir/articulo-261793-polemica-ley-lleras. April 2011.
[5] “Nosotros/Us”. DeJuepuchas in the Nation.” http://dejuepuchas.tumblr.com/about
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