We live in a generation, where ideas and content are constantly being generated through various mediums that expresses different forms of expression through art of recreating and emulating existing concepts. Remixing old content and remodeling into something fresh and unique has been a something quiet controversial due to copyright law and other issues such as royalties. However, I strongly believe that the conglomerate of several ideas, compositing into one form is essential for creativity and innovation. Rather than obscuring the remix culture, it should be more emphasized and celebrated because it sparks more creativity as well as innovation.

After watching RiP: A Remix Manifesto, it has not only inspired me to create more, but also gave me more insight into the flaws of copyright in the information age about the distinct gap between content consumers and producers. The film sheds light on the incongruity of copyright law and the view of intellectual property that inspires rather than obstructs creativity. For me, the biggest intake from the film was the four main principles –

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

This highlights one of the biggest issues of the information age and how copyright laws spirals out of control which is highly concerning. In order to build free societies, the past’s control should be limited and must be implemented to cultivate balance between rights of the creator and profits of their creation, at the same time rights for the public to have access to information. The idea essentially is that people have to get their ideas from somewhere, so they take what other have done before them and create something new from past work. To illustrate this point, one of my favorite movies ‘Fight Club’ states that “everything is a copy of a copy of a copy” which I highly relate to. I feel like there is no original content anymore in this age of information since everything we obtain is already been discovered by someone else but the fact it can be recreated into another version, is exciting and ingenious. Let us hope that as information technology continues to progress and more people see films like this, it will become increasingly evident to a larger portion of the public that something needs to be done to open up and ensure freedom of expression for everyone.