Also Walter Benjamin's 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Work_of_Art_in_the_Age_of_Mechanical_Reproduction http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm "An analysis of art in the age of mechanical reproduction must do justice to these relationships, for they lead us to an all-important insight: for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the "authentic" print makes no sense. But the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice – politics." Written, incidentally, in 1936. Pwnd.
Required reading: Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity by Lawrence Lessig ISBN 0143034650 The Future of Ideas by Lawrence Lessig ISBN 0375726446
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