As college students, most of us have used peer to peer applications to illegally download everything from course materials to pornography. This practice is inherently illegal and unfair to the producers and distributors who make their livings off sales. However the term "piracy" not only applies to people who are illegally downloading music and software, but also people who use copyrighted materials to create unique works of art.
In Larry Lessig's presentation he sates that due to current copyright laws, kids are growing up in a society where common forms of expression (such as creating an AMV) are against the law. This means that the idea of breaking the law has become commonplace, and Lessig thinks this disregard for the law will only lead to worse things, and possibly greater infractions. The conclusion he comes to is that the laws need to be changed to accommodate the ever increasing presence of technology in our world today. Changing laws to make it things easier for people to post videos lip syncing to copyrighted music seems a tad bit ridiculous though.
Copyright laws are meant to protect intellectual properties from being passed off as someone else's work, or from being used for commercial purposes without permission. These laws are necessary for musicians, writers, and almost anybody who creates a unique intellectual product. Yet as Mark Helprin mentions, copyright laws are not without flaws; namely the time limit on how long something can remain under copy right. The law was made to be ambiguous with the changing times, however, and efforts have been made to redefine the interpretation of the law to adjust.
Maybe then the whole of copyright law should be viewed in the same manner. While some Youtube-ers have found financial success, it has been with unique works, and just because someone uses other people's work to create this unique product does not mean either product would be the same independently. This is a slippery slope however due to the fact that illegal downloads have steadily increased. This culture where posting a uniquely made video on Youtube is seen as a criminal offence has only fed a community of online pirates. The two problems go hand in hand, so changing the laws will be easier said then done. The laws will eventually have to change, but the problem of living as a pirate may not go away.
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