BMI, UGC, too many TLAs

A TED talk with Larry Lessig I just watched was very enlightening on the concept of balance.

At first, I thought it was going to be about how old farts don't understand the technology of kids today. Luckily, it was much more than that.

The subject was UGC - user generated content - and the conflict between read/write media where the user has some say versus read only, where the user is a passive listener/watcher but never a doer.

Obviously, we are becoming much more of a R/W culture. This blog is an example of that. However, this blog is also an example of where one creator has lifted images from other people and, basically, stole their creative property (I won't do that this time, just for the record).

We've been through the property battles that technology incites many times, as Lessig discusses. Before it was about physical property. Now it is a bit less tangible. However, MP3s and digital creative property in general ware another domain that will soon be public.

While I believe, and have seen, it to be true that UGC will cause an eruption of amateur creativity, I also believe that there is a backlash to this situation.

The creative content on YouTube, blogs, etc is often very racy, democratic, varied, unexpected, everything I could want in a source of information. It is not reliable, but what is? People create for the love of creation. How beautiful.

But, where is the professional who spends her life refining her work? Where is the master? Do masterpieces exist in UGC? If everyone is a writer and a designer, why am I going to school for these things? I feel like, with any expansion of our horizons, it brings up more questions than answers.

In the end, the answer is balance. I know that there is a lot of UGC in the world, and it is a wonderful source of entertainment, but from time to time, somebody needs a professional. That is why I go to school, and that is why all of the YouTube stars have day jobs.

One haunting point that Lessig made is that, because of the obsession with piracy, we live life knowing that we are breaking the law. All the time. All of us. Is that damaging or helpful to the democracy we strive to create?