Marybeth Peters, the Register of Copyrights, stated “you can’t argue your creativity when it’s based on other’s people stuff.” However, this statement is contradictory. Copyright is protecting plenty of artists and companies from having their intellectual property from being stolen, yet many of these people got their intellectual property from building on past ideas. The whole copyright issue boils down to an argument of money versus creating new ideas. I agree with the four points of the remixer’s manifesto.

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.

If one were to use something copyrighted, it would be illegal. Yet, copyright was initially intended to protect people from stealing their ideas. Now it has become a double edge sword as only those who have the rights to the intellectual property can use it and those without, cannot. In a time where information is instantaneous and overflowing, this is a roadblock that needs to be removed. Copyright went from protecting to persecuting. It has been manipulated for profit.

However, the baffling part of copyrights is that it is not even the artists persecuting the remixers. In the end, it is a few large corporations going after remixers. It would seem that the copyright laws are not well suited to the changing digital environment. The charges against remixers are also ridiculous as they are persecuting people thousands of dollars for songs that they obviously do not have. So why would already large companies sue people thousands of dollars they clearly do not have? Money. Copyright has turned into a money making operation. These companies are irrationally trying to reclaim “their property” in a time where everything is easily accessible. They are the past trying to control the future and in turn restrict the future’s freedom.

I do not agree that companies should be suing remixers left and right for copyright infringement. At the end of the day, people usually do not dream up their own unique ideas. They draw from the past and other works done before them. To sue an entire generation creating their own culture because they are drawing from the past is ridiculous. We now live in a time where it is easier to do than ever before but it is also easier for these companies to pick people out for copyright infringement as well. Since it is rarely the artist themselves pursuing copyright infringers, the companies are the ones at fault. Radiohead was one of the examples presented to show how artists value creating more than money. They freely allowed people to remix their work to create new ideas. But to think that large entities value money so much that creating something new that is based off the past is so wrong, what does that say about us as a society? Is money really everything? “If this(remixing) is a crime, then we have a whole generation of criminals.” I think that a generation of criminals creating to better the world is far more preferable than a generation of law abiding citizens who are stagnant.