Back again. Almost a month since this blog series started. I have been away for my blog for a while. My wife and I (she did all the work) had a baby girl. Paige Olivia hart was born on March 31st. Check out our family blog at hartastic.com for pictures. Now, back to reactions and ramblings on RIP: A remix Manifesto.
open source video, online video platform, video solutionCan you own an idea? I am talking in the traditional sense. Is it the same as owning a car? I own a 1999 Volvo Cross Country. Certain rights come along with owning this car. I can drive it, let other people drive it, smash it, paint it, or do anything else that ownership and the law allows me to do. With my car, you have no rights. If I give or sell the car to you it becomes yours. I no longer have a car.
Ideas are different by nature. In regards to property, ideas have no inherent value. If I share an idea with you, I still have the idea. We both have a copy of the idea without goods trading hands. This isn’t to say owning an idea is worthless in the monetary sense. Copyright, trademarks, and patents have given control over the application of ideas in an attempt to insert inherent value. A rather successful attempt.
You might have heard John Cage, the late American minimalist composer. In 1952, Cage composed his most controversial and most popular piece, 4’33″. The piece is written for any instrument an instructs the musician to not play. Meaning that the piece is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. The intent was for the listener to hear the ambient noise of the environment while the piece was performed. You may think it odd, but I assure you it is a real composition.
You might not have heard of Mike Batt. Mike is a British songwriter/singer. In 2002 his current group (at the time), The Planets, released the classical album Classical Graffiti. One of the tracks on the Album, “A One Minute Silence”, consisted of one minute of silence. It was credited to “Batt/Cage.”
The owners of the copyrights to John Cage’s music sued Batt for copyright infringement. The felt they were entitled royalties from Batt as he performed a version of Cage’s 4’33″. The result of the lawsuit ended with Batt paying an out of court six-figure settlement.
Is this common sense? No. Is it the current state of things? Yes. This isn’t a rare occurrence either. If you don’t believe be just take a look at the state of US patents. US patent 5443036, a method of inducing aerobic exercise in an unrestrained cat (i.e. a laser pointer) and US patent 6368227, a method of swinging on a swing (i.e. swinging sideways) should get you started.
But I digress.
The ease of creating and publishing digital content on the Internet has made publishers increasingly obsolete. It no longer takes millions of dollars to get content or idea to the masses. Technology has leveled the playing field. As more and more of our culture can be represented as ones and zeros, the concept of ideas as property become less viable. As more consumers have the ability to create content, the product becomes less valuable than the process of creating the product. Meaning, since I can send information as a digital file for practically no cost, the inherent value lies in the creation of the content. Which effectively cuts publishers out of the circle. They not longer have a stranglehold on added value to content. On the Internet, we are all our own publishers.
The video gets a bit melodramatic about “the copyRIGHT.” The point they seem to be trying to make is the content publishers have strong armed congress into some pretty scary laws and regulations on how their content can be consumed. In American culture we tend to think everything has to be owned. Which is probably why we assume the same over ideas even though they are different than items of material value. We have shunned the public domain, where nothing is controlled and all is allowed.
I am not arguing everything should be in the public domain. Balance is needed. The scale is weighing very heavy on the side of copyright holders. Did you know that in the US copyright last for the life of the author plus 70 years. Copyright is also automatic. There is no file to form or fee to pay. As soon as you doodle on a napkin, it is copyrighted. Currently, there is no work entering the public domain due to copyright running out. Thanks to the Mickey Mouse Protection Act…I mean the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, copyright limits were increased. This act made works of 1923 or after still copyrighted. The earliest any of it will enter the public domain in 2019. That is if they don’t increase the limits again when Disney is fearing Mickey Mouse entering the public domain. At what point does the interest of the commons take precedence over the interest of copyright holders, let alone private corporations.
This need for balance is brought to light in the Remixer’s Manifesto. These four principles provide a definition for how we might attain a better and more equitable system.
A Remixer’s Manifesto
1. Culture always builds on the past.
2. That past always tries to control the future.
3. Our future is becoming less free
4. To build free societies you must limit the control of the past.
At the end, Girl Talk talks about sampling an instrument. Is making a collage of two songs together morally wrong? My mind immediately thought of a middle school art project that I did for Mrs. Barnes. We took parts of cereal boxes and made collages. Essentially, we were creating art by building on the work of others. Did I break the law in 8th grade? If so, did it hurt anyone? A better question might be, did it help anyone? My mom and dad would say it did, as they got a great piece of art for the fridge.
I also looked up the remix of Bert and Ernie and M.O.P.’s Ante Up on YouTube. I provided it for you below. It is clever and quite funny. It is also breaking many current copyright laws.
Onto part 3.
