Lawrence Lessig really tries to open one's eyes with the introduction to his book: Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Ecomomy, takes a look at different examples of how the recording industry has led itself the becoming the "police" of the music world, who are trying to stop others from breaking the copyright laws that are in place for our country. Girl Talk is an up and coming musician who is breaking all the boundries by creating "mash-ups" of hundreds of songs into one. According to Lessig, this is how "our" generation goes about creating new things, by building on the past.
Lessig states that the difference between a RW culture and RO culture is that, in a RW culture "ordinary citizens" will "read" their culture by listening to or by reading representations of it. Then going back and creating or re-creating from things they have observed. The RO culture on the other hand is "less practiced in perfomance or amateur creativity, and more comfortable with simple consumption". Lessig fears that since we are living in a RO world, artists like Girl Talk will make it harder for others to build off of.
In part, yes, but Lessig actually thinks we're now living in a RW culture, not a RO one. This is why he thinks our copyright laws need to change to acknowledge the reality of the world within which we live.
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