Lippy Duppy

derivative works:

• Duppy is a Jamaican Patois word of West African origin meaning ghost or spirit. Much of Caribbean folklore revolves around duppies. Duppies are generally regarded as malevolent spirits. ...
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duppy

 “Lip Dub: I got a feeling” Luc Olivier Cloutier and crew

  (Week five) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zcOFN_VBVo

Playing for change (Week four)

http://www.playingforchange.com/journey/introduction

Kirby Ferguson

“Everything is a remix, part one;"                                       

“Everything is a remix, part two”

 http://www.everythingisaremix.info/

In week four and five, we viewed two fun, inspiring videos that have gone viral on the web. Both are new depictions of work originally done by others.  These new remixed versions bring up all sorts of questions about what is and is not original work, copy rights and wrongs, fair use and the public domain. We spent much of the first few weeks in this class discussing the ethics and legalities of remix culture. “Rip, Mix, Burn, Sue” discusses the court cases brought on by the industries that grew up around the old paradigm of distribution and ownership of artist work. In this new era the means of production is becoming very affordable and available to nearly everyone with a computer, some software and access to the internet.  Publication is instantaneous.  The means to distribution is widely “in the hands of the many”.  The paradigm has shifted from control by the Corporation to control, or lack of it, by the many.

Art has a spirit that can express emotions, many times the spirit of the original artists’ vision remains when covered, remixed in homage or in jest. The video produced by “Playing for change” featuring Benny King’s “Stand by Me” and Luc Olivier Cloutier and crew’s joy filled video rendition of the Black Eyed Peas’  “I got a feeling” surely honor the spirit of the original. But the ethics and legalities of the use of others’ creations remains a complex topic that is difficult to decipher.

This is nothing new.  As Kirby Ferguson points out, there is a long tradition of what he calls remixing. Though he goes back to the 1960’s and the British invasion rock band appropriation without attribution or compensation for the black African-american bluesmen and others they stole from, Kirby could’ve gone back centuries. Over the years, cultural norms and “expectations” grew over how artist works would be treated.  It might be expected that the corporate structure that evolved as a result would have the purpose of ensuring artists would get credit and compensation for their creations.  In reality, artist often had little control over the distribution and profits from their material. A system of selling copyrights, (or analogous legal rights to artist materials) to the companies that produced media and distributed them, (like record companies), resulted in all but the most successful and business savvy artists from having the best control and most profits from their materials. Many seminal artists such as Little Richard, made others filthy rich but spent their retirement in poverty.

There has been a movement to give artists more control over the use and distribution of their work. The same technology mentioned in my opening paragraph of this essay, have in this new era allowed this paradigm shift from control by the Corporation to control in many cases by the artist themselves.  With the means of production becoming more affordable, artists can produce and distribute their own work and through models such as the Creative Commons approach to licensing and the “copy-left” movement have control over how their works are used by others.  Technology has changed the means of obtaining profits from work, but the potential of obtain more income than artists would in the old model exists. We will have to watch as society and industries continue to evolve as new technology forces the paradigm to shift.

“Rip, Mix Burn, Sue” Ed Felten (Weeks three, four and five)

http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~felten/rip/

Copyright, Fair Use, Public Domain, Derivative Work articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_work