Issues & questions that
Joe Clark’s upcoming book on copyright for creators will address
You wouldn’t know a real remix if somebody broke a 12″ EP over your head
If there’s a buzzword that copyleftists resort to using even more often than “commons,” it is “remix” or its near-synonym “mash-up.” According to Lessig and his legions of followers, a significant aim of culture is embodied in the remix. Remix culture is tomorrow’s culture.
Cultural benefit
In many years of reading lengthy explanations of this line of reasoning, up to and including Lessig’s book with the actual title Remix, I’ve seen no evidence of actual cultural benefit to these remixes or mash-ups, which only ever use mainstream-media content and are interesting solely as remixes or mash-ups, not as works themselves. (Would you ever voluntarily listen to Danger Mouse or Girl Talk as music? Wouldn’t you hit fast-forward if their songs came up on shuffle on your iPod?)
Only the A-list gets remixed
All those indie “content creators” gamely licensing their work for future remixing? It’s never gonna happen; only popular work gets remixed.
The music industry handles this well
This is not an argument for the corporate copyright-maximalist view that every snippet of sound or video used in a work should require advance permission or a royalty payment. But it isn’t an argument against that, either, since there’s already a system in place that works well in recorded music, despite claims to the contrary.
Copyleftists get the law wrong
Some of the examples cited by copyleftists as examples of remixing are actually examples of permitted incidental use of a work. (That’s just one of their errors.)
The real problem? Indie rock!
Copyleftists are indie rockers at heart. Lessig uses Remix to name-drop Wilco, Jeff Tweedy, and Lyle Lovett. (And Negativland. And Dylan.) They’ve never heard a real remix in their lives, couldn’t name two professional practitioners of the form, and have no idea it’s even possible to be a professional practitioner. (“Remixing? As a profession?” Yipper. And it’s been going on for decades.)
Something else that will be a complete surprise to them is the fact that, in this genuine remix culture, nothing happens without permission, there’s near-absolute creative control, and everybody gets paid.
How’s that other “remix culture” looking now?