HOW ORIGINAL?

What do you think is going to happen to the  InterNETtual property rights of Artists & Writers & Musicians & Corporations?

Shaun Huston on Pop Matters asks,
"Is anything ever wholly original in the sense of having no references or debts to other creators?"

He goes on to write: rip! A REMIX MANIFESTO 
"is an entertaining, thoughtful, and politically committed articulation of what the filmmaker dubs the “copyLEFT”, that is, those who support a copyright regime that favors openness and access to cultural product – music, films, books – rather than exclusive rights for the commercial owners of such product, which is labelled the “copyRIGHT.

The copyRIGHT currently dominates intellectual property law in the US.


What happens to the vitality of a culture when content can be locked down, essentially, for perpetuity? What kinds of options for creativity, for distribution, are opening up for artists in the emerging digital/remix culture? 


Are organizations like the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America defenders of creator rights or dinosaurs gasping their last breaths?


This meta-commentary works as well as anything else in the documentary to underline the essential point that culture is made, not owned."  http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/102337-rip-a-remix-manifesto 

I found another review in the Montreal Gazette.

"A Florida day-care centre was recently busted for having Disney cartoon critters painted on its walls. The centre had to remove them or face the wrath of a seemingly Mickey-Mouse law. It is no stretch to suggest that Disney’s Steamboat Willie character owes its origins to and is a parody of Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill. Regardless, Disney was rather litigious when it came to taking action on those who may have infringed on his creations."
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=e88e2492-f6cb-4059-ba2a-17e79ed736b7

SOPA "Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Provisions include the requesting of court orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the sites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to the sites. The law would expand existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A similar bill in the U.S. Senate is titled the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA)."
Wiki

A decade ago we all watched the music & recording Industry fall asleep at the wheel as online "piracy" exploded. Steve Jobs came up with iTunes but most bands need to license their song for a commercial and go on tour to make money now. The days of getting royalty cheques in the mail aren't what they used to be. This documentary looks at how the US once brazenly ignored the rights of foreign authors to subsidize and promote American authors...the same situation that exists today in places like China.

Can some sort of compromise be reached or can this genie ever be jammed back in the bottle and corked?