How can we bring ethical practices into creation? How many restrictions do we have to follow, and after that, what do we have left? How can we possibly express ourselves in an artistic way?
“RIP: a Remix Manifesto” documentary video direct us to the issues of illegality of download of music for free. In one hand we can sympathized with an artist that it is trying to make a living. The constant download of music, despite the author’s hard work and investment to get that single album out to the public, can get any company out of business. However, what happened with the liberty of self-expression. By liberty of self-expression I mean all of those that take segments of other artist music and create a new blended beat. At least they should have the freedom to use it. If it comes to they DJ/mixer should get charged, then a system should be created to have a win win.
Congress has created laws and regulations to protect intellectual property and the works of authors. The enforcement of all these regulations had come a long way, but with room for improvement; the law can be read very broadly. The distinction between what is “fair use” and “infringement” of a copyright work is not always clearly defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may be safely taken without permission, which is why many people abide by the “amount taken test”. In accordance to this test, it argues, the taking of very small parts of a copyright work is considered fair use. For instance, I remember reading about a lawsuit against Star Films, whom was accused of copyright infringement. Things didn’t turn out too well.
The film in which the 15 second clip from Jim Morrison song, “The End” was used in a documentary and in its composition it is totally different from the original work. It should not be considered copyright infringement. “The widely accepted guidelines on the current interpretation of the law are spelled out in a “best practices” statement by American University’s center for Social media. It protects “fair use” of copyrighted material in documentaries in four categories.” Two of these categories support the use of this material. They state:
Category 1: As an object of “social, political or cultural critique.”
Category 2: Quoting Copyrighted works of popular culture to illustrate an argument or point.