Digital Prohibition

The act of creation requires us to remix existing cultural content and yet recent sweeping changes to copyright laws have criminalized the creative act as a violation of corporate rights in a commodified world. Copyright was originally designed to protect publishers not authors and has now gained a stranglehold on our ability to transport read write teach and publish digital materials. <br/><p>Contrasting Western models with issues of piracy as practiced in Asia <em>Digital Prohibition</em> explores the concept of authorship as a capitalist institution and posits the Marxist idea of the multitude (à la Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt and Paulo Virno) as a new collaborative model for creation in the digital age. Looking at how digital culture has transformed unitary authorship from its book-bound parameters into a collective and dispersed endeavor Dr. Guertin examines process-based forms as diverse as blogs Facebook Twitter performance art immersive environments smart mobs hacktivism tactical media machinima generative computer games (like Spore and The Sims) and augmented reality.</p>