Ever since the beginning of time, people have been renewing and evolving our knowledge. Through
science, math, fine arts, philosophy and so on the greatest ideas have come from ideas that have previously been created. For instance, Shakespeare, one of the most well-known and studied artist of his time, had created many plays that we have created and recreated multiple times. How many versions of Romeo and Juliet have you seen? Leonardo Dicaprio wouldn't be able to sweep you off your feet in his version had the original not been created in the first place. How about Much Ado About Nothing? Twelfth Night (the movie She's The Man is based off of)? Christmas songs have been done and redone, remixed and auto-tuned for your enjoyment over the years. But what many people do not know is the steps that are involved with assuring that you won't get sued over just a tiny bit of copyright infringement and your hopes and dreams of your creativity being known to the public squandered.
Copyright is a big deal. Originated obviously because artist wanted to make sure that their "original" creation would not be copied by other people. And yes it has come into good use. But on the other hand our creative world has evolved even further. Copyright has become so involved that it is hindering the creativity of musicians that feed off of other content to create their own. Electronic Dance Music for example. This music specifically uses samples of other songs to create their own music along with maybe some original sounds and content they create. Fines people charge for use of their songs rack up in a 4 minute long song. Lower level EDM artist are unable to make albums because they are forced to pay thousands of dollars before they even see any revenue from their artwork.
Piracy is a way for people to share copies of movies, TV shows, even music for free. Copyright comes into play because it protects artist from people seeing/listening to their work for free. Viewing/listening for free means the actors, artist, directors, back round dancers, and what not don't get paid. Which is a problem of course. But now it has gotten to the point where people freak out if your Youtube description box doesn't fully state all the ways you don't own the content that is clearly not your in the first place. Youtube takes your video down. In my opinion Copyright needs to take it a step back and look at the bigger picture. Yes it is wrong to steal other peoples work unfairly. But does it have to be to this extreme? Let's evolve people.
Relating this back to course content, we had viewed a movie where the focus was on a relatively popular artist that basically made his fame through his underground network of fans that had collectively produced over time. He was unable to make and album due to the amount of cost it would make for him to produce one and the fact that copyright rules would basically hand him a lawsuit the second the album dropped. We have also learned about Open Source apps and programs that allow us to create content legally.
sources:
http://bciptf.org/2014/03/copyright-and-electronic-dance-music-production-what-are-the-legal-risks-to-producers/
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