NMA 2050

From the very beginning, „RiP: A Remix Manifesto” surprised me in so many ways. The opening statement of the author in the first scene of this documentary, when explaining the nature and the concept of it – creating an open-source film – was astonishing, because I have never even heard about such an idea. Making a video project about the copyright issues and labeling the project itself as an open-source one and encouraging the audience to modify it, is a powerful, game-changing idea. It is a prime example of how form can perfectly connect with the content.

As part of the Remixer’s Manifesto, the author touches upon some major points, which pretty much make up the entire structure of the documentary. By introducing them in the beginning, and thoroughly following them step by step throughout the film, the author gives the audience a sense of direction, which helps the viewer to clearly understand the movie’s message. The four steps: „1. Culture always builds on the past, 2. The past always tries to control the future. 3. Our future is becoming less free. 4. To build free societies you must limit the control of the past.” make the movie more organized and easy to follow.

The author of the movie exposed a lot of facts that I find plainly ridiculous. For example, I was unaware that the song „Happy Birthday” – performed every single day in so many situations and despite being such an integral part of our culture is in fact protected by a copyright law. By singing „Happy Birthday” we violate the law, since we do not own any rights to use it. Interestingly, the licensing fees do not go to the creators of the song, but sadly to the corporation which is holding the rights to it.

The movie argues that our culture is constantly being build upon from the one of the past. For example, nearly all of the most well known Disney movies were not original ideas, but rather a modification of the past stories that were previously known to the society. This statement really surprised me, as I thought that Disney – a company that I really respect for its unique brand and creative approach to making movies – used only their own original ideas. As it turns out, even Disney is participating in the process.

„RiP: A Remix Manifesto” makes a very crucial point that we cannot fully thrive as a society and progress with our culture if our creativity is limited by large corporations, which hold on to every piece of intellectual property. In their view, the copyrighted material is not a library of infinite source of information that can inspire dozens of people to create new things. According to their actions that they have taken against companies, artists or just ordinary users – it is just another source of easy revenue. I agree with the fact that we live in the world where „consumers are now creators” and we need a free exchange of ideas in order for our culture to thrive.