In RiP: A Remix Manifesto, there are four key points presented. One, culture always builds on the past. Two, the past always tries to control the future. Three, our future is becoming less free. And four, to build free societies, you must limit the control of the past. The narrator describes copyrights as defenders of the past, who see remixes as a supermarket where ideas are intellectual property, lawsuits, corporate lobby, and infinite money. On the other hand, the copyleft describes those that share ideas and believe the public domain must be protected for the free exchange of ideas and their future of art and culture. Something that I found interesting about this is that copyrights were initially made to encourage others to create, not limit them. Previously, all ideas were in the public domain. But through copyrights, lawmakers ensure the right of the new technology to innovate while allowing authors to still get paid. Another thing I found fascinating is the process of a remix. In the documentary, there is a man showing how he creates a mashup from scratch, except none of the material is his. Marybeth Peters, registrar of copyrights, explains that he is just rearranging stuff, turning one thing it was into another new thing it previously was not. With copyrights brought up, the answer will always depend on whose original work is used and how upset they are about it. However, Peters also brings up a good point that it cannot be argued that copyrights “limit” creativity if it is based on other people’s work.
Introduction to New Media Arts
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