Documentary: RIP, A Remix Manifesto
After I came back from the inauguration, I compiled my pictures into a short video using Sam Cooke’s “A Chang is Gonna Come” (which I own on vinyl, cd, and digital via iTunes) and uploaded it to Facebook, and Youtube. A few days later, Facebook and Youtube yanked my video or yanked the music from my little slideshow due to copyright infringement. Note I “own” the song in three various forms. I was not giving the song away, but playing with some pictures to share with my friends. If that is copyright infringement to put a song in a slideshow for friends, it must be copyright infringement for me to play the same song in my house, at work or at a beach for my friends, right?
Well I’m not a lawyer and not sure whether what is considered infringement or not, but I can say this: the concept of copyright law need to be completely redefined for the 21st century. The documentary film RIP: A Remix Manifesto aims to do that by telling the story of copyright through the central character of Girl Talk.
RIP: A Remix Manifesto is not only a film but an open source film “protected” not under traditional copyright law(which you have to pay to protect) but under Creative Commons which is a new form of copyright which is free and accessible to anyone to use. The type of Creative Commons copyright the filmakers use allows anyone to download, distribute, edit, remix the film in anyway you choose.
The film was based on a manifesto created by author and lawyer Larry Lessig. The Manifesto contains 4 statements:
1. Culture Always Builds on The Past
2. The Past Always Tries to Control the Future.
3. Our Future Becoming Less Free
4. To Build Free Societies, You Must Limit The Control of The Past
The film does a good job of proving that copyright law does not protect but hinder innovation and creativity and progress. You wouldn’t have the “classic” sound of Led Zepplin and Rolling Stones if they didn’t sample Muddy Waters (who and is family was never compensated under the copyright law). Disney wouldn’t be the cultural icon it is if they took stories that were in public domain and re-creating them (i.e. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, even the Invisibles which was loosely based on The Watchmen).
RIP: A Remix Manifesto is film that everyone should see. You can download the film for whatever price you think it is worth (sound familiar?) From Girl Talk to Bert and Ernie to Baile Funk to Amplive’s Radiohead remix project even the distrbution of HIV Drugs, the film covers a lot of ground.
Check out Larry Lessig lecture on Copyright law at TED
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I’m glad you mentioned the Rolling Stones and Disney sections of the film. Even though I was already familiar with the Rolling Stones vs. Verve Pipe hoopla, it felt as if I was hearing the case anew due to the way the sequence was edited – both visually and sonically.
However, for me the most powerful section was the film’s final film fifteen minutes in which it opens up the spectrum of copyright to include consideration of laws regarding medicine patents.
There’s something interesting about being able to pay what you want (http://www.ripremix.com/getdownloads/) to download the film or to pay a set price through iTunes. What do you think about the different download outlets being available simultaneously at different prices? I seem to recall Kid Rock refusing to put his music on iTunes because he thought their business model was socialist. It seems like there could be something broader to pull out of this by using RiP’s release as a case study.
I think that offering the pay what you feature to other download outfits would be great and be win for both distributor and creator.