Let Remix Live!

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-03-21 09:22:00 UTC
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the cover of Lawrence Lessig's recent "Remix"

Our copyright laws need to be updated to allow for the creativity of remix. As more and more content - from videos, to music, to writing - becomes accessible, it's wrong to assume that "originality" is synonymous with "new." In fact, it's probably right to assume that "creativity" and "originality" have always been more about rearranging constituent elements in new ways than about something new.

Yet today, to quote former copyright blogger and guru William Patry:

Copyright law has abandoned its reason for being: to encourage learning and the creation of new works. Instead, its principal functions now are to preserve existing failed business models, to suppress new business models and technologies, and to obtain, if possible, enormous windfall profits from activity that not only causes no harm, but which is beneficial to copyright owners.

I've almost never seen a better reason to consider remix a form of art and creative opportunity than this video, posted on Gizmodo a couple weeks ago. It's a mashup of more than 50 Youtube videos to create an incredible funk jazz number with matching video mashup. Keep in mind that none of these musicians or videos are related to one another, they're just all put together in rearranged in a new way to make it work. Put together by Israeli musician Kutiman, this is awesome:

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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