Reviewed by Maree Boyce

I thought at first Wired Shut would be of vital interest to people working in the digital or creative industries. However, after reading Tarleton Gillespie's introductory chapter The Technological Fix, I can appreciate how deep-reaching the considerations and consequences are for everyone participating in life (culture). He has created a unique space empowering us to become active and aware of issues that will vitally affect and determine our collective future. This text has some great chapter headings – A Heroic Tale of Devilish Piracy and Glorious Progress by Jack Valenti - who isn’t tempted to read that one! One of its definite strengths is its in-depth but easy to absorb style. The chapters contain real working examples of the debates – in action.

Wired Shut starts off in jaunty style revisiting Alvin Weinberg’s question, considered naïve now - To what extent can technology circumvent social engineering problems? Gillespie reminds us that like every tool, digital culture is only as useful as the skill and intention of the users. He forces us to consider our answer by giving the ultimate example of the Internet with its ability to achieve many noble outcomes, but which is in actuality still evolving as a social tool. Will it corrupt us or enable real democracy? It does tend to highlight the best and the worst in our culture and every intermediate shade, which is what makes the question so interestingly complex.

Once the exclusive domain of law and policy-makers, copyright in the digital context has been consumed by mass markets. The new techniques of ‘cultural production’ need more comprehensive visionary laws; instead, they seen a clash over control of this emergent knowledge economy. Gillespie aims to introduce those totally unfamiliar with copyright law without overwhelming them, while still providing useful insight to those readers already conversant. A lot has happened in the courts that has also been aired in public opinion and debate. US entertainment giants were the first to enter the war. Most readers might remember the campaigns run where creative artists were presented almost as endangered species. Gillespie positions this as an attempt by the companies to avoid the tricky problem of suing your own customer base. Thus piracy was marketed as the new digital sin, especially for the godless. The copyright question made companies struggle with new business models of how to translate traditional business into web-based business – essentially how to promote your products without losing them.

The current shift in strategy is leaning towards technology designed to restrict use. This is directly at odds with the opportunity and new choices that the new technologies supposedly offer the consumer. Ironically, it could be seen that social engineering returns full circle to sit over the freedoms and flexibilities of technology to facilitate ‘right practices’. This text importantly addresses the shifting areas of whether we know what’s happening now, what it is and the implications for consumers and their interactions.

There are philosophical questions involved such as - should the maker of the tool be held accountable for the abuses of that tool by others? In the following chapters, actual law precedents are examined like the court case involving Napster’s p2p system (peer- to–peer.) The affronted party for example, did not close the site down, but instead was able to insist that the tool was altered to serve them commercially and the tool became not only the deterrent but also an effective weapon. Gillespie illustrates how this approach, which favours encryption built directly into the artefact, a new intervention first trialled by the music and film industries, has a lot in common with military security.

Then Gillespie asks us to further consider these implications embedded in everyday software, which probably largely determines much of what is consumed by dictating table manners, the menu and a lot more. The tools we rely on could also be blunted by these new encryptions at the very least, not just impacting on our ability to copy, but dictating our every interaction with the new mediums. This might further impact on individual cultures like China, where a large population base operates culturally on sharing resources – a different approach to that of the west.

Can we ever really have the best and brightest in innovation if various 'police states', base their copyright law on the consumer being guilty until proven innocent. Whether these new measures would even enable prosecution of breaches is yet to be proven. Effectively, the matter when placed in the arms of those that manufacture the equipment ensures we don’t even have access to temptation – but Gillespie asks - what else are we missing out on?

Digital copyright is thus at the heart of our cultural policy, impacting on individual and collective freedoms with any proposed limitations imposed having the potential to reshape and remap the potential and possibilities of the internet, when so much of our culture and ways of interacting are being transferred to these new spheres. Gillespie reminds us that historically copyright laws always privileged the distributors over the originators – is this a situation we want to permit to continue given the new cultural exchanges and possibilities offered by new technologies?

Gillispie's individual chapters examine legal, philosophical, cultural, political and

economic considerations and both practical and theoretical engagement that draw upon recent theories of technology, communication, and culture to present their case for urgent consideration of the broader ramifications for all.

Gillespie ultimately argues that digital copyright exemplifies the way controversies can present unique opportunities as the sites of and for debate, to decide how the future of cultural expression can be framed. It is important for people to become aware and informed. He also shows an alarming view of political machinations already behind the scenes lobbying for new design regulations, laws and institutional arrangements, trying to convince us of new cultural discourses to match their motives.

Wired Shut bases its interpretative approach on considering the foremost efforts by the US content industries - one a failure, one a success largely, and another still being hotly debated. Chapter Two, for example, looks at workings of copyright law where the new technologies effectively disrupted the established and comfortable balance by raising visual ambiguities. Considerations and possibilities on how distribution should work in a digital age may not have been considered in their fullest context. Should copyright law actually evolve to accommodate the changing ways in which culture now operates, rather than be a translation or an overlock by an archaic existing law or system?

Gillespie writes boldly and coherently, ranging over the general to the complex relationships and issues behind the scenes, presenting an important and unique dialogue urgently requesting our attention and involvement. The societal consequences of digital rights management and information flows cannot be understated. The emerging alliance between law and technology has the disturbing ability to profoundly shape and possibly collapse the best of the democratic potentials in our new, networked communities.

Wired Shut – Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture

(2007)

by Tarleton Gillespie

The MIT Press

420 pp US$29.95
ISBN: 0-262-07282-3