Remixing

I was in classes all of Friday afternoon, so unfortunately I couldn't attend the copyright forum, but I am really looking forward to listening to the recording of it. In the mean time, after spending all day researching and studying Copyright laws, I am either more acutely aware.... or more paranoid. This has been a good subject for me to familiarize myself with, because I consider myself to be in the group of people that just use any photo or video that I find online and use to my need.

First and foremost, the one thing that has been very interesting to me is realizing that we are creating all of the time, whether or not we realize we are. While learning about copyrighting, I came across a website that focuses on remixing. I watched every clip on the site - I just found it to be very fascinating to consider. The website is called Everything is a Remix. The author behind it is Kirby Ferguson, a New York filmmaker. In his website he gives a lot of visual examples of songs and movies where a creator/songwriter/filmmaker had borrowed from an earlier product of the same medium without giving credit.

His idea is that we need to just embrace a form of dependent creativity, because we are not inspired from within, but by outside forces and works. I read more of his site and found that he actually gave a TED talk about his idea of nothing being original and the hypocrisy behind copyright lawsuits.

I struggle a little bit with this concept; with brushing aside copyrighting our creations. I think that authors, artists, creators should have the right to protect their own creations. He doesn't explicitly say this, but I got the impression that he just doesn't think intellectual property laws and copyrighting should even be enforced, let alone exist. I do think that IP laws should still exist. If anything, rewritten, but not abolished in their entirety. 

On the other hand, I do think that there is truth to some of what Ferguson is saying. Especially with his idea of how when we want to copy, we're completely justified, but if someone else wants to copy our own work, then we will go at them with full force to ensure they don't. 

The end result: I'm so curious now! Anytime a song has come on in a playlist of mine in iTunes, I begin to consider the possible influences on the song that are not credited, from other artists.

My husband is actually really considering practicing patent law and the whole field of copyright and intellectual property, so this has been interesting for both of us to research together!