RIP! ReMix Manifesto

Had the privilege of watching this video in class, and although it was made 2 years ago and how so much has changes since then..it still stirred up an anger inside of me as a media consumer. The documentary focused on the artist Girl Talk and all of the copyright infringements and piracy issues that can come about while remixing. Here is a link that is of the preview: http://youtu.be/9oar9glUCL0

The full hour and 26 minute film can be found on the hulu website, and there were 4 main points addressed and expanded are

1.  culture always builds on the past
2.  the past will always try to control the future
3.  our future is becoming less free
4. to build free societies, you must limit the control of the past

Personally, remixing doesn’t seem like a problem, because it gains more exposure for the original artist and sometimes catapults them into a new genre & in turn, possibly gaining more fans. A brazilian teacher said that “everything comes come from everything else” I completely agree…and it was stated by the filmmaker that “technology giveth and technology taketh away”. while websites such as YouTube, Twitter and even this one, we are encouraged to share ideas, opinions, yet when someone really begins to catch on to something or go somewhere truly revolutionary…there is always a small fear that the government or executives fear the loss of control that they have. It seems that since 2009, they have let up on a few things, for example, the IRAA will stop suing individuals for downloading songs.

The film documents and can really instil fear in you as a person by using words, images and video clips to help push the point. As for my using the following photo:

it helps show the 3 uses of media and where they are acceptable to be used, but a small part of me cannot but be worried that the website I got it from could come after me that it’s not MY intellectual property…even though I am using it to further describe my points.

Why was covering a song (singing the exact same words, playing the exact same notes) shrugged off, yet using a small 2 second sample of a song, adding new beats and backrounds seen a federal offense?!