I just watched part four of Everything is a Remix and enjoyed it. Being a musician with a keen interest in music 'biz' as of late, I could easily be coerced into doing a research essay on this video's subject matter. However, I'll try to keep my thoughts brief.
Star Balls
I love the Star Wars intro to this video. While I didn't think much of it at first glance, I kind of laughed out loud when the irony hit me. It is almost like a visual abstract of the video. You think, "Hey, he copied Star Wars." and then, "Oh, but that's funny and entertaining so it's okay." Suddenly, I feel the urge to download, the satirical remake, Space Balls.
Peanut Butter and 'Jam'
I can remember eating my grandmother's P, B, and J's when I would visit on the weekend decades ago. I also enjoyed the ones my mom packed in my lunch for school, but they weren't the same as my grandma's with her homemade bread and jam-and Mom would probably agree. A similar thing can be said about versions of songs regarding their creators and copiers. There's a huge difference between jamming out a popular cover tune and stealing an obscure track off an old 45 rpm record and calling it your own. In my opinion, copying tastefully is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to music as long as credit is given to the original composer and lyricist. After all, it's the artist's bread and butter being spread around.
Original Syntax
Speaking of things that can be sliced, I am pretty sure that in high school English class we did a similar activity, a remix if you will, based on William S. Burroughs' idea. Similarly, you never know what you will get when you cut up lyrics of different songs and mix them together; and the more you cut them up , the further you get from the originals, potentially spawning a flavorful and unique piece of writing. If you're looking to do some writing, try out a cut up engine to get you started.
To conclude, I would agree that it is almost impossible to create something that is 100% original. Having said that, I think a person(especially a struggling artist)should be able to own their idea even when it displays obvious prevalence of another's influence and style, but is not an outright duplication.
I enjoy peanut butter and jelly very much, but I guess the main question I have, is since nothing is truly an original idea. What percentages or limitations would you put on someones ability to copy and paste that idea into someone else's idea. For instance, their was a law suit done by U2 against someone for using the same Cords during a song, but it was ruled that no one really owns Notes that can be played on a guitar up to a certain extent, but that extent hadn't been breeched in this instance.... where is the line if its not CC'ed?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the limit for someones ability to copy an idea? Is modification okay? since we see examples in the past from Samsung and Apply suing each other back and forth based on these modifications being down to patents and companies winning large sums of money based on it. If all ideas are free, what emphasis on perspective do you place when someone makes more money on the modification than the original?