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To show that this loss of the public domain has real consequences, Lessig turns to his favorite example, that of Walt Disney himself. Mickey's first successful cartoon, Steamboat Willie, was not created in a vacuum—it was a direct parody of Buster Keaton's recent silent film Steamboat Bill, Jr., which was itself based on the popular ballad "Steamboat Bill." Disney was free to draw on very recent cultural products and to transform them in his own creative way in something new, and not just with Mickey Mouse. Most of the great Disney cartoons have drawn from other people's source material (such as the Brothers Grimm), including Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood, Peter Pan,  and so on. The irony here is clear: Disney built a media empire on the back of public domain material but now fights tooth and nail to prevent any of its own content from flowing back into that same shared space.

At its heart, copyright has always been about preventing the spread of unauthorized copies of a work. Now that digital copies of any work can be instantly shared, proliferating across the network like rabbits, the power of copyright has grown enormously in scope. As only one example of the power of copyright in the digital age, Lessig points out that a teenager who downloads two copyrighted songs to his computer faces stiffer maximum penalties ($150,000 per song) than does a surgeon who accidentally amputates the wrong leg of his patient ($250,000). Free Culture's central claim is that the control exerted by major media companies ought to be scaled back to a more sensible level, one that leaves more room for transformative works (such as Disney's) and creates a healthy public domain. "The internet," writes Lessig, "should at least force us to rethink the conditions under which the law of copyright automatically applies, because it is less clear that the current reach of copyright was never contemplated, much less chosen, by the legislators who enacted copyright law."

Loaded with fascinating examples, Free Culture is a thought-provoking read, though at times it slows under the weight of repetition. It's a book designed to make you angry at the status quo, and on that level it works superbly well, but those hoping that Lessig will come down squarely on the side of the millions of file-swapping Christian teenagers will be disappointed. File-swapping, like the VCR, has all sorts of non-infringing uses, but if record companies don't grant permission to share their music, Lessig is no Abbie Hoffman. He will argue, though, that labels cannot hang onto their copyrights forever; Christian teens will just have to wait for middle age before downloading that Steven Curtis Chapman disc for free.

Nathan Anderson lives and writes in Wheaton, Illinois.

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

The Christian Music Trade Association's press release is available online.

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May (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48