RIP: A Remix Manifesto on Q

This interview with the creator of RIP: A Remix Manifesto summarises and expands on many of the points he makes in the film. As well as raising some additional avenues of research I had not considered. Here are some notes from this:

Negative lens - culture jammers 

Multi-nationals don't need to ask our permission to bombard us with images

Yet we have to ask permission of them.

Legal risks:

As filmmakers we feel like we're not breaking the law, we're working within what the law should be

Sypic ottawa. Law depends on who you ask. If you're commenting on the original work it is Fair use. Nobody has made a film about this. 

Disney Corp are litigious. But Walt Disney was the biggest remix artists of all, brought old work to life for a new generation. Mikey mouse was a parody. The year Mickey Mouse was about to fall into the public domain they lobbied US Congress  to have copyright terms extended so that nobody could do to Disney what he had done to the Brothers Grimm and other creators. 

Girl Talk would have to pay $4m dollars to clear his album. But it is impossible to guess.

There should be space in the law for this kind of creativity. It almost brings us back to original forms of culture where people contributed a lot more. Only a chosen few can sample. Kanye can sample, Beck can sample because they already on a record label and money can easily be exchanged between labels. 

Amateur creativity should be unregulated. 11 year old at a workshop made a mash-up and it was immediately taken down by Youtube. Warner Bros wouldn't give him the time of day, nor would he have the money to interest them. 

Mash-up and Web 2.0 creates MORE opportunities for revenue. If you sing a Madonna song, you can pay a royalty to the song writer, if you sample, there is no easy process for paying for this. 

Girl Talk has a hard time selling his music. Plus he could be sued. 

John Oswald - Sony had all his CDs destroyed. 

So much of their lives take place on the internet. Everything you do on the internet is a copy. So the same laws that used to apply to corporations now apply to people. For previous generations, culture is something to be consumed, not manipulated. 

Bestie Boys, Public Enemy pave the way. 

We lose the ability to comment on culture without using the material we are criticising.