Trust the remix, trust the remixers
: I find it ironic that Lawrence Lessig is fretting about people doing bad things in blogs. Lessig is the man who wants to free up content from the control of copyright so people can do with it what they want. Well, take the good with the bad. And — most importantly — if you have faith in the people, you should assume that we can tell the good from the bad. Says Lessig:
But the more I’ve talked about this with observers and friends, the more I think the real fear is not bloggers tempted by ad revenues. It is instead the emergence of the equivalent of tabloids in blog-space: commercial entities whose sole purpose is to generate ad revenue, who do that by being as ridiculous and extreme as possible.
The danger here is that the conflict has returned. Just as the British tabloids care little about the truth in their path to selling papers, commercial blog-loids care little about the truth in trying to attract eyeballs. And it is here that the cycle turn vicious: for the amateur space feeds the professional troll by careful and repeated efforts to show that claims made are false or outrageous. If you’re paid by the click, who cares why people click.
Well, we already have Drudge and Sploid and they are tabloids and they try to make money. But if they — or anyone — lies all the time, people with good sense — which is most of us, no? — will figure it out and stay away and bloggers will not waste their time debunking the liars and advertisers will stay away, too. Have some faith in the people and in the market you want to free up, professor.
