Kirby Ferguson has released a new episode of his series, Everything Is A Remix.
Part 4 looks at the unexpected consequences of intellectual property laws:
Our system of law doesn’t acknowledge the derivative nature of creativity. Instead, ideas are regarded as property, as unique and original lots with distinct boundaries. But ideas aren’t so tidy. They’re layered, they’re interwoven, they’re tangled. And when the system conflicts with the reality… the system starts to fail.
While not specifically about music, Ferguson’s series looks at ideas that directly impact musicians.
See the previous parts, embedded below.
http://vimeo.com/14912890
Everything is a Remix, Part 1 – focuses on remixing in music.
Everything is a Remix, Part 2 – focuses on remixing in film.
http://vimeo.com/25380454
Everything is a Remix, Part 3 – explores how innovations really happen.
I’m not a huge advocate for software patents, but Ferguson doesn’t seem to understand why software patents came into existence – it’s because inventions that used to be entirely hardware (e.g. music synthesizers, fuel injectors, microwave ovens) have had many of their key components replaced by software.
Seems the point is that the present concept of a “Software Patent” is being abused to no end. Unlike with traditional patents, there is no original concept of a software patent of purer intentions to give acknowledgment to; I imagine he’d say that software patents should help patent holders offset their development costs — nothing more — not that software patents shouldn’t exist at all.
the ending scene with the birds had me cracking up. I’ve never felt so sentimental and nostalgic for theft.
a perfect example why so ci a li sm would never work
Great video series. Nothing whatsoever in it advocates socialism.
love what he’s doing.
A tad bit ironic that iStockPhoto is sponsoring tho..