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David Gerths

Dr. Dietel-McLaughlin

First Year Composition

29 September 2010

Copyright Laws

Some critics feel that the internet should be heavily regulated because of the dangers that one

may run into on the web, there are yet others who insist that current regulations do not stimulate

creativity. Over the last decade, how to govern the internet has become a dilemma that is proving

difficult to answer. Lawrence Lessig in “In Defense of Piracy” and Pete Roja in “Bootleg Culture” argue

that the modern laws controlling the internet reduce the creativeness an individual may express through

online technology. Both build very strong arguments for their cases; however, it is their use of examples,

pathos, and credibility that seal the deal for each of them.

“In Defense of Piracy” by Lawrence Lessig, argues that the growing enforcement of copyright

laws is taking away from the creativity of society. He also describes a war between big time company

and technologically creative individuals. Lessig insists that the people who blog on the internet, use

Myspace, or post videos on YouTube are being creative as well as inspiring creativeness, and it is wrong

for big time corporations to try to suppress it. This young society is not a bunch of readers, but they are

media junkies that spend hours upon hours in the media world; so why try to stop what might be a

better learning process for these young adults, Lessig asks. This war must come to an end, Lessig insists,

and big time corporations must leave amateur internet posters alone unless they are making profit off of

something copyrighted.
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Lawrence Lessig’s article uses one in depth example that applies to the people who have families

which relates to the reader and grabs their attention. At the beginning of Lessig’s article of a mother

who falls victim to copyright laws. By using this example he connects his argument with one very large

group- the group of his audience who also have families. The main reason the article is able to link itself

to the reader is that the example and the readers both have something in common, their families.

Without this example, readers would not be able to find reason to consider the point of Lessig’s article.

The fact that Lessig successfully connects his reader to his article points to an effective argument.

In Lawrence Lessig’s article he uses pathos to grab the attention of his readers by extracting

their emotions. He gives an example of a mother videotaping her child dancing with a song by “Prince”

playing softly in the background, which she then puts on youtube.com. This video was then found by

Universal Music Group who demanded that YouTube remove it from their site immediately. This

example appeals directly to the section of Lessig’s audience who have families because the mother from

the example is taking pride in her child, just like every family. By taking the video off the internet they

are taking the pride away from the mother, which every family can feel sympathy for. This connects

audience and the mother because they both would be outraged, thus hooking the audience to Lessig’s

argument. By using it at the beginning of his argument Lessig is able to immediately capture the

members of his audience who have families of their own.

Lessig draws his credibility from his own background and from quotes of credible sources to

earn the audience’s trust. Much of his career has been spent studying law and technology. Once a

professor at Stanford Law School, the University of Chicago, and now at Harvard Law School, Lessig has

written five books. One of these books covers the topic of internet regulations and is called “Free

Culture”, which addresses the issue of “how big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture

and control creativity.” (http://www.free-culture.cc/about/) Lessig has also won the Free Software
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Foundations Freedom Award as well as being named one of Scientific American’s Top Fifty Visionaries.

These credentials alone are enough to influence a reader to trust Lessig because he obviously is an

expert in the area in which he writes. He is also uses quotes from important figures of the subject. For

example he quotes John Phillip Sousa, who is a popular musician during the early 1900’s, "When I was a

boy...in front of every house in the summer evenings you would find young people together singing the

songs of the day or the old songs. Today you hear these infernal machines going night and day. We will

not have a vocal chord left. The vocal chords will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail

of man when he came from the ape." (John Phillip Sousa). By quoting this musician he has managed to

make himself into an even more trustworthy writer. This has an effect on his article, and therefore his

argument to allow an increase in freedom on the internet, in a positive way.

Pete Roja’s article “Bootleg Culture”, Roja gives us an insight into the new and booming world of

bootlegging. Bootlegging is the mixture of two or more songs or movies without producer, artist, or

writer’s consent. The mixing of this new genre of songs, Roja says, is easy, and can be done with any

household laptop with the right programs. The ease, combined with the rapidly increasing popularity of

the new genre, is driving more and more people to pursue this new type of music. “Anyone can do it…”,

Roja says, while acknowledging the idea that copyright laws may remove the creativity from this type of

genre. Roja believes that one of the biggest problems with bootlegging is that the people making these

songs are ignoring copyright laws that ban people from using artist’s materials. And with new types of

file sharing software like KaZaA, bootlegging is almost impossible to stop. At the same time however,

Roja states that many genres started out in the same fashion, for example hip-hop music in the late 80′s

and early 90′s (which is now one the music industry’s top genres), and that maybe the music industry

should wait on the sideline to see what happens with this new genre.
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Unlike Lessig, Pete Roja gives many, less in depth examples to support his argument. In his

article he says, “The Beastie Boys, Beck, Missy Elliott, Chemical Brothers, and M/A/R/R/S -- artists whose

own careers are based on sampling and who in some cases have been sued in the past for their own

unauthorized sampling.” From this quote we can see that Roja doesn’t engage in the particular stories of

each of these artists, he just simply states what happened to them. The effective part of this example

though however is that by providing a wide range of artists from different genres, Roja is able to connect

with more people than if he just gave one artists example. If he would have only cited one artist then

the size of his audience would be smaller because not everyone may like that artist. But since Roja used

so many artists more people become interested in what he has to say and what his argument is about.

Roja uses pathos to appeal to his audience in his article, “Bootleg Culture” by bringing out

emotions in his readers. He does this by saying, “Though 2ManyDJs tried to go legit and get permission

for as many songs as possible, they still were unable to get clearance for a significant number of samples

they used on their album -- and even the permissions and clearances they do have are so restricted that

it will be impossible to release the album in the United States.” This statement brings out a sense of pity

in his audience because the artist, 2ManyDJs, is working to get to the top of the music industry. His

efforts however, are being thwarted by the music industries copyright laws; thus keeping him from

reaching his goals. Roja uses this because everyone knows what it feels like to be kept down and fail at

some point in their lives, and when his audience reads his story they feel sympathetic for this artist;

therefore making them more understanding of Roja’s main argument.

Though he is able to look credible, Pete Roja lacks credibility because of poor background

information and a lack of useful quotes from important people. Roja is able to look like a credible source

because it’s obvious that he knows a lot about what he is talking about. For example, he says, “Last year

copies of a home-edited version of "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace" began circulating on
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the Internet to widespread acclaim from fans who declared "Star Wars Episode 1.1: The Phantom Edit"

the superior of the two versions.” (Pete Rojas) Obviously knowing such a thing would take extensive

research, so it makes him look credible. But in doing my own research on Roja, all I could find is a blog

that he runs about the internet, but the fact that he has a blog isn’t a sufficient reason that would

influence a reader to believe Roja’s argument. Without this, it is hard for a reader to consider what Roja

is proposing. His lack of sufficient quotes also plays into why readers would not find reason to believe

Roja’s propels because his quote is of a bootlegger, who may be a biased source. This bootlegger says,

"There is a creative aspect, because not all songs work well together, but all the lyric writing and music

composition has been done for you. You may rearrange the segments of an instrumental/a capella, but

that's just production work." (Grant Robson). The quote that Roja uses does not provide reason to

support his article because the person that provides the quote is not a credible source. The fact that

Roja lacks satisfactory background information and important quotes makes it harder for the reader to

trust his argument.

Both Lessig and Roja have very strong arguments. Lessig’s use of an in depth example and Roja’s

use of many shallow examples both work very effectively to gain the interest of the audience. They also

use pathos, which is argument by emotion, with much success. Lessig and Roja use sympathy, or pity, to

relate the audience to the examples, thus making the readers much more prone to accepting the

writer’s arguments to weaken copyright laws. Where Lessig and Roja differ however is their credibility.

Lessig’s credibility is much more superior to Roja’s because he has appropriate background information

and significant quotations from reliable people. Unlike Roja, whose background information and quotes

are sketchy at best. Because of this, Lessig’s article, and his argument, is better than Roja’s.

Lessig has great credibility and strong use of examples, as well as good use of pathos; whereas

Roja has great credibility and a strong use of examples, but lacks credibility. But is credibility all it’s
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cracked up to be? For example, Jay Heinrich in his book “Thank You for Arguing” talks about how his son

is able to convince him that he should be allowed to wear shorts to school in the middle of the winter.

His son is in grade school and therefore has no credibility whatsoever, yet he has formed a significant

argument to sway his father’s decision to make him wear pants. This is because he has used ethos, or in

Heinrich’s definition, “Ethos, or argument by character, employs the persuader’s personality, reputation,

and ability to look trustworthy.” (Jay Heinrich). Heinrich says “look trustworthy” not “be trustworthy”.

This draws us to the conclusion that Roja could have no credibility whatsoever yet if he acts like he does

then people will trust his judgment and will believe that his argument for the weakening of copyright

laws in favor of more creativity is sound.

Overall the best, and most convincing, article is “In Defense of Piracy” by Lawrence Lessig. He is

able to combine his examples, pathos and his credibility so that his audience has almost no choice but to

believe his argument is right. Pete Roja’s article “Bootleg Culture” on the other hand, uses examples and

pathos very successfully, but cannot find the credibility needed to fully convince his readers of his

argument.

Bibliography

" Free Culture / About." Free Culture. 25 Mar. 2004. Web. 30 Sept. 2010. <http://www.free-
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culture.cc/about/>.

Heinrichs, Jay. “Thank You for Arguing.” Soften Them Up. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007. 38-45.

Print.

"Lawrence Lessig." Berkman Center. 16 Nov. 2009. Web. 29 Sept. 2010.

<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/llessig>.

Lessig, Lawrence. "In Defense of Piracy - WSJ.com." Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street

Journal - WSJ.com. 11 Oct. 2008. Web. 30 Sept. 2010.

Rojas, Pete. “Bootleg Culture – Salon.com.” Salon.com. Web. 30 Sept. 2010>.

<http://dir.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/01/bootlegs/index.html