Lethem Reading Assignment

"...that early in the history of photography a series of judicial decisions could well have changed the course of that art: courts were asked whether the photographer, amateur or professional, required permission before he could capture and print an image. Was the photographer stealing from the person or building whose photograph he shot, pirating something of private and certifiable value? Those early decisions went in favor of the pirates. Just as Walt Disney could take inspiration from Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr., the Brothers Grimm, or the existence of real mice, the photographer should be free to capture an image without compensating the source (Lethem 215)".

The passage is taken from Lawrence Lessig's book, Free Culture. In the original text, Lessig briefly discusses the possible consequences of the judicial decision for photography. While the presumed permission leads to democratic technology of expression, the verdict of piracy will limit the technology solely to the professionals, and aid the growth of importance of photography over time. Accordingly, despite the fact that Lethem describes Lessig's work as radicalized, Lessig takes a rather ambiguous stance on the matter of visual art. Through the judicial decision, the subject of a photograph is rendered as a "public common" available for inspiration and reevaluation of the general public. Although the art form gradually became popularized because of the presumed permission, photography is less an important profession than a mere interest. On the other hand, Lethem utilizes this passage to apply the surrealist's ideal onto photography. Similar to Lessig, he emphasizes subject of photography as a "public common property". Yet, expanding the argument upon that, Lethem highlights the process of recreation by putting the subject in a different setting through lenses. In that way, the same object achieves revitalization through different photographers and different contexts. Same process can be said for literature work. What is commonly known as plagiarism can often bestow a new context and new meaning to the passage as Lethem did. Thus, rather than notoriously known as theft and piracy, appropriation can sometimes publicize or reinterpret a text. Yet, as plagiarism can't be arbitrarily defined as piracy, it should not be completely acceptable. In some cases where one copies some texts word for word without any personal interpretation, he  invades the common property by claiming it as his own.