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The Bribe Mentality: Neglecting and Derailing Intrinsic Motivation

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    "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse"
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    the infinite yes presents: The Bribe Mentality
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    neglecting & derailing intrinsic motivation
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    song: "she sold her love to a modern man, because solid currency is the hardest to love"
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    ...and so, the evidence...I mean it's not even a close call
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    in behavioural science that these if-then rewards
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    if you do this then you get that
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    They're terrible, they simply don't work.
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    What we have is we have this carrot and stick motivational system
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    that's kind of like a technology
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    that has outlived its usefulness
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    We need to kind of update what we're doing
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    Time for motivation 3.0? - Yeah.
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    Intrinsically motivated action or things we do because we get enjoyment from doing them
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    could well be described as joyful participation in life.
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    Take a minute to think about the things in your live that you participate in joyfully.
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    If you answered: "your job", you're in the minority
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    In fact I couldn't find any statistics on how many people
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    say they actually get enjoyement from their work
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    but I could find statistics on how many people were dissatisfied with their work
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    and its over half.
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    This often happens,
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    even to people who are able to actually get jobs
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    doing something they enjoy.
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    Because as a person is presented with
    extrinsic motivating factors such as money
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    or even excessive praise
    or other positive reinforcement,
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    whatever intrinsic motivation might have been present
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    becomes seriously undermined
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    as they lose their sense of authorship,
    authenticity and autonomy
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    over what they were doing,
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    and now must be baited
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    for what earlier they would have done voluntarly.
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    Excessive extrinsic motivation
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    is actually a widely recognized phenomenon in the entertainement business
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    where accusations of being a "sell out" or "just doing it for the money"
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    are hurled regurlarly when a music artist signs a deal with a major record label
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    and the music quality slumps
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    or a film maker makes a particularly high budget film.
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    And this is not to say that quality necesseraly deplets as rewards increase.
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    Many well paid people display outstanding talents,
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    there is no denying that
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    but as the "bribe", so to speak, is accepted,
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    the person's self-motivated interests often wanes and fizzles out.
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    Now bribe may seem like a strong word
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    after all when we think of bribes we usually think of
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    corrupt police officers or the Mafia,
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    so why then would I refer to voluntary payments
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    for actions willingly performed as bribery?
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    Well, websters dictionnary defines bribery as:
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    "Money or a favor given or promised in order to
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    influence the judgement
    or conduct of a person in a position of trust"
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    and since, to quote Alfie Kohn,
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    "One of the most thourougly researched findings in social psychology
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    is that the more you reward someone for doing something,
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    the less interest that person will tend to have
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    in whatever he or she was rewarded to do."
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    we see that we can not have rewards without them functioning as bribery.
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    Even if it is unintended, a reward is, by design,
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    an attempted manipulation of another person's behaviour.
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    When we are talking about money..
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    the reward we give for most forms of social participation,
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    we must recognize that by being deprived of this reward
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    is life threatening and so the bribe for participating in our society
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    is done virtually at gun point.
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    Functioning under the assumption that people are so apathetic
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    or so useless that they must be threatened with mass deprivation
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    ie: "being broke" before they will ever contribute to society.
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    And it is only in functioning under this assumption
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    that people have been conditioned to sometimes actually act that way.
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    When bribed into action one can not joyfully participate
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    in that action
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    nor can they gain any real happiness from the bribe itself.
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    Money does not buy happiness
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    and affection given on the conditional basis
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    will only serve to cheapen itself.
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    So the rewards we are given don't event make us happy.
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    Ok yes, everybody would be much happier
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    if they had enough money to live comfortably.
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    No one is arguing that, but once we get passed that level
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    higher rewards do not equal happier people.
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    In fact the more possessions one has,
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    has been shown to often negatively affect their stress levels.
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    Which makes sense because
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    holding a mindset of constantly chasing extrinsic rewards
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    is one of always being one step behind,
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    always unfufilled, every step you take up that ladder.
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    But so what if we aren't joyful or fulfilled,
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    maybe people don't like it as much
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    and maybe they don't want to do it as much
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    but aren't people just plain more productive in a society
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    when they are chasing rewards?
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    Actually no. In study after study the results say
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    that after a certain reasonably low level of income
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    further reward has absolutely no effect
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    on the productiveness of people who are doing work
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    that requires even rudimentary thinking skills.
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    Once our basics needs are met,
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    people who get paid more
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    do not perform better and in many cases often perfom worse.
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    The only thing money is good at motivating
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    is mindless, repetitive drone work
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    that could just as easily been done by trained monkeys.
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    Or more realistically robotics technology.
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    It is an absolute insult
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    to the progress of humanity and the history of human achievement
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    that we allow our brothers and sisters to continue to be subjected
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    to the needless imposition of this kind of mindless meanial labor
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    when we have the technology to move beyond it.
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    Of course, that is not to say that there is no work to be done
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    but working towards a society that actually takes care of its inhabitants
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    is something that I think we could all joyfully participate in.
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    "When I ask people all over our planet, in my work,
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    to think of something they did recently that enriched somebody's life
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    and anyboby can usually think of it.
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    Although it takes a while because we everyday do so many things that do that.
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    Its so part of us that we don't think of it, you know.
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    We give verbal greetings that are designed to
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    connect in pleasent way with people.
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    We cook meals for people.
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    We do it.. touch them in ways that nourish.
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    So very often it takes a while before people can answer this question
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    but then they get something in mind that they've done
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    for somebody in the last 24h,
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    now I say: focus your attention on how you think that enriched their lives,
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    in terms of their needs. What needs of theirs were met?
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    how do you think that left them feeling?
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    And when people start to imagine that, you can see
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    a beam come out of their face, and their eyes.
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    And I say: "How do you feel right now?
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    When you realize that you did something that had that impact on people?"
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    and people say: "I feel good, I feel happy, I feel delighted."
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    Then I ask them this question: "do any of you know
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    anything that's more fulfilling
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    than to do that?
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    To use the power we have in a way that contributes to people's well being.
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    I've asked that question all over the planet
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    and nobody has ever said to me if you get a Lexus thats better or, you know,
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    if you get these kind of culturally induced rewards that that's better.
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    No. People say, the most fulfulling thing is to contribute to people's well being.
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    Well thats play then, thats the most enjoyable play that we human beings engage in.
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    To contribute to people's well being
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    now sometimes that play can envolve hard work,
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    because I may work very hard to do something that contributes to people's well being.
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    Sometimes I travel a long way across the world
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    to offer something to people that's enriched my life.
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    But it's play when my full focus of attention is on why I'm doing it
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    I'm not doing it for money,
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    I'm not doing it to get a positive report card.
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    I'm doing it because it's something that has increased joy in my life,
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    it's joyful to share it with others, it's a fun game.
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    It's the most fun game I have ever found: contributing to people's well being.
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    I'm really confident it's the most fulfillng game we human beings will ever find.
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    Social contributions must be freely and willingly given
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    if we as a civilization are to reach our peak potential.
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    By working to secure the integrity of society for all people
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    not just those with so called monetary wealth.
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    We create an environnement which will truly nurture
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    the inquisitive, productive and giving qualities present in all people.
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    We must stop competing for rewards that leave us unfulfilled
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    and release a new culture of selfmotivated collaborative advancement.
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    The drive to move society to the next level is present within the population.
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    Lets not stifle and insult that drive
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    by assuming its actions are conditionally based on some superfluous reward.
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    Human beings want to help
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    Let's let them!
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    A resource based economy does not use money
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    Instead relying on intrinsic motivation
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    Removing the very base for greed and corruption.
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    Allowing us to nurture each other and the planet
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    We can't fix problems using the thinking that caused them
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    For more information on a resource based economy
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    Google "The Zeitgeist Movement" and "The Venus Project"
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    Thanks for watching. www.theinfiniteyes.com
Title:
The Bribe Mentality: Neglecting and Derailing Intrinsic Motivation
Description:

"Punishment and reward proceed from basically the same psychological model, one that conceives of motivation as nothing more than the manipulation of behavior."
-Alfie Kohn

written and narrated by aaron moritz

songs:
broken bells - the ghost inside
off the record karaoke - sail (awolnation)
broken bells - vaporize
broken bells - citizen

http://www.theinfinityes.com
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and check my vlog channel:
http://www.youtube.com/theinfinityes

you can diminish my intrinsic motivation by donating to my projects here:
http://www.theinfinityes.com/donate/

The media material presented in this production is protected by the FAIR USE CLAUSE of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, which allows for the rebroadcast of copyrighted materials for the purposes of commentary, criticism, and education.
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Video Language:
English
Duration:
11:22

English subtitles

Revisions

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