We watched this video a really long time ago, and I took an abundance of notes on the video but never put it into action with a blog post. I’m a terrible procrastinator but at least I get it all done. So here are my thoughts on the video.
The movie was a documentary called RIP: A Remix Manifesto and it was all about the copyright laws, censorship and the media. The documentary was divided up into four main points:
1) Culture builds on the past
2) The past tries to control the future
3) Our future is becoming less free
4) In order to build free societies you must limit the control of the past
Girl Talk was one of the individuals the documentary focused on. He’s not a traditional musician, in the sense that he doesn’t sing, or play an instrument. What Girl Talk does is take songs from other artists in the past and using a computer program completely alters the beats, rhythms, and arrangements of the songs, mixing a bunch of different songs together, and comes up with something completely original and different. The problem that Girl Talk faces when creating his music is copyright infringement. Should this really be such a big deal? I mean Girl Talks music is completely one of a kind, and his huge fan base would sure argue that as well.
I believe copyright issues have some validity up to a point. I think people should give credit where credit is due of course. If culture builds on the past, but the past is so locked-up with copyright laws to even build on it at all, then our future is looking bleak for culture. Maybe all these big companies, big CEO’s, big lawyers, and corporate goons, should stop being so money hungry and give our culture some freedom to grow. Because that’s really the issue here isn’t it? Money and greed? Walt Disney [the person] isn’t even alive, yet when someone replicates Mickey Mouse, Disney cracks out their lawyers and their lawsuits. Really corporate America? Give it a rest already.
