the legality of it all...

As someone with very little background in law, it had never really occurred to me that movies had to run every single item that appears in them by a copyright lawyer in order to include it in the picture. However, after reading Lessig's piece, it makes perfect sense. I remember all the movies I watch and groan 'product placement' when I see a character obviously drinking a Pepsi or typing on a Mac. Of course, some of it is product placement, but some of it may just be because it was the brand that gave permission.

As of yet, the Internet doesn't really have many laws to regulate it. Last night in class, Carol Darr was speaking about how hard it will be to try and do so. For example, I could easily take the Coke logo and place it in my blog. I could then write an entire paragraph telling you how much I hate Coke. The truth is though, Coke can't do anything about me using their logo. Streaming video allows anyone with a basic knowledge of technology to create their own mini-film. These films use all types of music and pictures, and none of these novice filmmakers got permission, nor did they probably even consider that they might possibly be doing something that could be illegal.

It looks like I'll be doing more legal reading in the next week, and I'm interested to see what more I don't know about what's legal and illegal when it comes to the media and the Internet. Stay tuned.