I can see the value to this on both sides of story. The original artist worked extremely had to create their original piece of artwork. For some it would probably break their heart to have someone come along and "destroy" it with their own edits. Then after the original is destroyed, the new piece is given credit to someone else. How is that fair? I mean you spend hours, even days creating something and all of a sudden it's seen to be profitable by someone else so they come along and change it?
However, that person doing the editing is an artist themselves. They can see a different side to the original art piece. They can make it be different that it is and maybe even convey a different message. How many cover song are their out there? They make the song a little different than it was. What about making a collage? I think the important thing is to give credit back to the original artist. I believe that is what the new copyright laws need to do. They need to protect the original artist, but also give the new artist rights to change the piece of work as well.
I wish I had the skill or know how to edit his work, because Steven Colbert's Report would be fun to edit.
I agree with you - the artist needs to be compensated for his work and that is what the copyright law does. Lessig certainly makes a case for changing the copyright law when he mentions entertainment companies going after tweens for copyright infringement. That seems a bit overboard and perhaps there ought to be changes to govern or allow for use of sections of movie or music for kids. And what about Creative Commons? I would think that could be used to allow for using sections of a movie or music. I certainly can't say I have firm answers since I haven't researched the subject enough. "Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy" by Lawrence Lessig seems like a good place to start.
ReplyDeleteGreat view of both sides, very well put. Remixing is a touchy subject to say the least, but I feel any press is good press. People should definitly just take a moment and say hey I remixed this from the original version mde by so and so. It will also show how much you actually remixed the video to showcase your talent.
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