Who has a problem with remixed music? Old people.
Now hang on a second. Let me define old people before you throw an ageism lawsuit at me.
I am not using the term old to denote age. Understand I am not insulting veterans of life. This copyright war has nothing to do with the age of a person.
The definition of old I am using is past times. As in days of old. Meaning people with a mindset that does not include participation in modern digital culture.
Marybeth Peters seems to be an old person. You and I see them everyday. On the surface, proud of the fact they don’t have a computer at home. I have an inkling this isn’t pride, but thinly veiled fear of things new and changing. Marybeth represents the old mindset that wants to keep things the way they are. What scares me most is that she works for the US copyright office. Shouldn’t the copyright office be the one exploring the changes that digital technologies are bringing. Instead, it seems that they aren’t engaging in the discussion and making criminals out of our kids.
Music building on old music is a great point. Is any music without influence? Are we kidding ourselves by pretending there is a line that marks influence and ripping off? If I hadn’t already posted the The Axis of Awesome video in the first part of this series, it would be worth putting it here. If there is a line, it is a subjective one at best.
At what point does an idea become devoid of influence. Is that even possible? If not, is the idea of copyright flawed from the start?
