Courtesy of our friends at Artsjournal.com is a story on the BBC website about how the 21st may become the century of amateur culture. The article cites how podcasting, blogs and digital photos have really empowered people with the ability to share bits of themselves.
The article heavily quotes Lawrence Lessig who created the Creative Commons, basically a way for content creators to state what portions of their creations they will and won’t allow other people to use.
The content of my blog, for example, has always had a Creative Commons license on it. Click the icon in the lower right column under the calendar and entry listings to view the details of it.
The story makes the move by many media companies to limit the usage of material they control like the last flare of a fire before it burns itself out. Though they concede that big media will always be in a strong position to create and control, amateurs will find themselves in a much better position to influence tastes than they have ever been before.
The BBC itself is digitizing its archives to allow people to remix their sounds and images in order to create something new. There is no mention about what restrictions they place on the use of the material in terms of giving recognition to the creators of the original pieces, but I imagine they won’t be onerous.