Producer or ProdUSER? Produced or ProdUSED?

Axel Bruns, author of such things as Blogs, Wikipedia and Second Life, believes there is an absence of producers, distributors and consumers, and a presence of users creating content to a piece of work already formed by improving it. Also known as ‘produsers’, these groups or individuals take a content already developed, and produce or create a new content …but are they seen as creative? Or seen as ripping something off? But, are these forms of art being produced or prodused. Is it a matter that they cannot think of their own ideas to create something better than the peice of work they are potentially about to ruin?


Bruns has explained and shown a diagram of the producer method as a circular form, where content is created, and the produced into a new form or content.
German-Austrian film ‘Downfall’ is a victim of its own work being prodused through YouTube. Produsers have used the one same scene from the film to show the different reactions from Hitler when the new Vegemite was released, or the new iPhone leak (in which of course may have been on purpose). Yet, these issues make the reaction of Hitler in this scene humorous and comical to see such a man angry over these matters. But are these produsers ripping off this Oscar nominated film? This produsage has led to more and more people wanting to watch the original film, although film makers have urged for their film to be taken down from YouTube.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3al_4HSteyE

Not all produsage can be seen as ripping something off. In the past, there have been artists or songwriters who have taken content from an original song and have used it in their own work. Although myself, I do not enjoy listening to these original songs having been prodused, but there are people in society who do enjoy it, and therefore this type of work can be seen as creative and something new from an original piece of work.


So to conclude, produsage can be a type of creative work, or can rip an original work of art off. Yet becoming a regular occurrence, produsage can be used by anyone and everyone, for laughter, or for money.