In chapters 1 and 4 from Lawrence Lessig’s book “Remix”, he brings up famous composer John Phillip Sousa and his turn-of-the-century views on copyright laws in an era where copying technology has greatly improved. Sousa claims that our society has gone from a R/W (Read/Write) culture where we take in some information and then try to duplicate it in our own way. This is the basic concept for being an amateur at something, as no one can be an amateur without having some grasp on the aspect of something that the professionals in that field do. Instead, the ability to instantly copy things such as music and listen to them at any time has lessened society’s want to try to duplicate the content. America will slowly switch from an R/W culture to an R/O (read only) culture. Why would someone try to recreate something when they could just hit “replay” and listen to the content again easily?

This might have been true in the day of Sousa, where the phonograph was the main topic of concern for the subject of copyright issues. In media of those times, everything practically worked one way. Phonographs could only play music for other people to hear, so it could be assumed that everyone listening to music would only be using the phonograph in a way that would unintentionally promote the R/O type of thinking among Americans. However, in this modern era, media outlets (like the internet) work two-ways. Now the amateurs can use the internet to experience something and then use the internet to further sharpen their skills in imitation. For example, a site such as Youtube can be used to listen to music, but it can also be used by amateurs to upload their own covers of songs. Many use the site to promote their own original songs. The internet is the ultimate medium where the concept of a R/W culture thrives.