If you are looking for a fantastic resource that encapsulates the copyright reform movement position, RIP: A Remix Manifesto is a great place to start. This “open-source” documentary by Brett Gaylor looks at the digital music revolution and its implications for copyright law by tracing the steps that have taken our culture from Napster to Greg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) - “open-source” meaning anyone is able to make their own remixes and mashups the film. Appearances by Lawrence Lessig, Gilberto Gil and Cory Doctorow provide an interesting perspective for how copyright law hinders creativity and is ultimately destroying our culture. Certainly controversial, this documentary tries to present the most compelling argument for why copyright law needs to be reformed so that the remix/mashup culture of the 21st Century can legally create new art while respecting aspects of copyright law. The movie doesn’t advocate the end of copyright law, but rather looks to alternative licensing, such as those offered by the Creative Commons.
In an interesting twist, you can visit the documentary homepage and purchase the movie (in a variety of formats) for whatever price you’d like to pay - in true Radiohead style. I downloaded the movie and paid $5 for - though I could have easily paid nothing. In my opinion this is an interesting idea and I think that other bands/filmmakers/artists will test out the “pay what you want” model. Here is the text from the RIP homepage:
In RiP: A remix manifesto, Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers.
The film’s central protagonist is Girl Talk, a mash-up musician topping the charts with his sample-based songs. But is Girl Talk a paragon of people power or the Pied Piper of piracy? Creative Commons founder, Lawrence Lessig, Brazil’s Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil and pop culture critic Cory Doctorow are also along for the ride.
A participatory media experiment, from day one, Brett shares his raw footage at opensourcecinema.org, for anyone to remix. This movie-as-mash-up method allows these remixes to become an integral part of the film. With RiP: A remix manifesto, Gaylor and Girl Talk sound an urgent alarm and draw the lines of battle.
Which side of the ideas war are you on?
I recommend checking out the documentary for yourself and seeing where you fall on the copyright vs. copyleft continuum. Not really appropriate for use in the K-12 classroom, the video does provide musicians and educators with a fascinating glimpse into this complex issue, and helps illustrate what the remix/mashup culture is (our students are a part of this culture) and how the law effects it. It will most certainly provide you with quite a few talking points and discussion questions - and best of all - you don’t have to pay for it (though you should).
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has recently launched a new website dedicated to providing educators with a comprehensive approach to teaching students about copyright. The site, called simply Teaching Copyright, provides lesson plans, handouts, and online resources to help students (and teachers) understand how copyright law effects them and the media that they encounter on a daily basis. Here is a quote from their site about their mission:
The Teaching Copyright curriculum is a detailed, customizable learning plan to help educators raise interesting questions about copyright, technology, and law, such as:
* What is legal online?
* How is creativity being enabled by new technologies?
* What digital rights and responsibilities exist already, and what roles do we play as users of digital technology?
Through the Teaching Copyright curriculum, students and teachers will learn the answers to these questions and come to a greater understanding about the role of technology in our lives.
The site includes a Curriculum page complete with 5 units covering various aspects of copyright law geared toward high school students. The downloadable resources are wonderful, and I think that every teacher interested in copyright law should bookmark the site and send colleagues there as well. Because the EFF has created the site, users can be sure that there is definitely an agenda behind the curriculum that leans toward copyright reform as well as taking full advantage of Fair Use guidelines. It is a perfect site to counter similar sites set up by organizations such as the RIAA. I must admit that personally I appreciate the approach that Teaching Copyright takes over the RIAA approach.
I recommend checking out both resources and deciding for yourself which to use with your students. It could be a great project to have students compare and contrast the messaging on each site. Teaching copyright in the 21st Century is becoming more and more of an essential subject - especially when the students we teach are effected by it so deeply.
Author and fellow tweeter Siva Vaidhyanathan posted a link to an incredible music video produced by the Media Education Lab at Temple University that gives an overview of Fair Use. It is a really great way to explain copyright and Fair Use to those who don’t really understand all the aspects of it. I recommend checking it out and decide whether it would be a good thing to show to your students - I certainly think it would be!
I was recently interviewed by my good friend Scott Watson on his excellent podcasting site which is titled: What Music Means To Me about my book, The Teachers Guide to Music, Media & Copyright Law. The interview is broken into two parts, and Scott posted Part 2 yesterday on the site. Topics covered include the paying royalties for recordings, copyright issues related to recording, media on the Internet, and the ethical dilemmas before each of us working with students in this digital age. I urge you to check out his site and have a listen.
If you have any questions about copyright law, please feel free to visit the companion site to my book and post your question on the Q&A section. I’ll be happy to answer whatever questions you might have about specific situations in your teaching.
And if you are interested in purchasing a copy of the book, use coupon code spring09 when checking out from the SoundTree Online Store to get 10% off and free shipping through March 31st!
Today I am presenting a session titled The Music Educators Guide to Copyright Law at the MENC Eastern Regional Conference in Providence, RI. Today is a special occasion for me, as my father is in attendance - the first time he has seen me do my thing. As always, I will be podcasting today’s session. The podcast should appear before tomorrow afternoon on my podcasting site. In addition to the podcast, you can check out all of the session materials which are located on a special SoundTree landing page created for the session. Also, if you haven’t done so already, visit the companion website to my copyright book or order your own copy today on the SoundTree Educational Store.
I found this clip on Twitter last week, and I have to say, it is the single best example of a mashup that I have ever seen. This clip (along with eight others that were posted on a site called Thru-You) includes short audio samples from dozens of videos on YouTube that someone named Kutiman found, cut up, twisted, and manipulated to create an entirely new piece of music - which he calls The Mother of All Funk Chords. I have viewed it dozens of times, and I am still amazed by what he has accomplished - a brand new genre of music/video/mashup. The amount of time necessary to create this work is tremendous and the amount of creativity is even greater.
I attended a lecture at the New York Public Library with Lawrence Lessig, Shepard Fairey and Stephen Johnson a week ago, and one of the points that Prof. Lessig made was from a quote by Aldus Huxley about technology creating a culture of passivity. This YouTube clip, along with the other titles from his collection (including I Am New, and Someday), is the ultimate example of how Huxley was wrong. Here, Kutiman has been anything but passive in his use of this technology. Instead of simply viewing the clips, he has created something entirely new. While it should be noted that it is likely he did not receive permission from any of the people in the clips to use their work in his (and thus a copyright infringement) I believe that this is a strong reason for why quoting music should be as legal as quoting authors.
What do you think? Would you ever teach your students how to create a similar mashup? Is this a new art form or an example of piracy (or both)? I urge you to try doing something similar with software such as GarageBand, iMovie, ProTools, Ableton LIVE, Media Composer, Logic, Pinnacle, or other similar products. I’m getting started right now!
I was recently interviewed by my good friend Scott Watson on his excellent podcasting site which is titled: What Music Means To Me about my book, The Teachers Guide to Music, Media & Copyright Law. The interview is broken into two parts, and Scott posted Part I today on the site. Topics covered include the history of copyright, my interest in copyright law, fair use and the public domain, and more. I urge you to check out his site and have a listen.
If you have any questions about copyright law, please feel free to visit the companion site to my book and post your question on the Q&A section. I’ll be happy to answer whatever questions you might have about specific situations in your teaching.
This Thursday I will be attending what should be an incredible event at the New York Public Library: Wired Magazine is hosting a discussion with Lawrence Lessig, Shepard Fairey and Stephen Johnson titled Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. The discussion revolves around Lessig’s most recent book of the same name as well as the controversy surrounding the now famous iconic picture of Barack Obama that was created by Shepard Fairey - now hanging in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. The discussion will be moderated by Stephen Johnson, another one of my personal favorite authors. I am really excited about this program, and the last time I saw a similar event at the NYPL, it was incredible. If you around NYC on Thursday night and are interested in the future of creativity and how it relates to intellectual property laws and copyright, I highly recommend buying a ticket and checking it out. Hope to see you there!
After nearly 10 years of research and two years of back and forth with publishers, my book - The Teachers Guide to Music, Media & Copyright Law - is finally available for purchase. Hal Leonard published the book (they are a fantastic company to work with) and it is available on many different websites for purchase, including Amazon.com, HalLeonard.com, Barnes & Noble, and soon on the SoundTree Educational Web Store. There is a companion website for the book located at www.copyrightbook.net that includes a Q&A forum, links to other copyright resources, and downloadable files to be used in the classroom. The book actually came out ahead of schedule, thanks to the editorial contributions of David Moser, Rob Cohen, and the amazing Rusty Cutchin. I couldn’t be happier with the result.
If you are heading down the San Antonio, TX for the upcoming, TI:ME/TMEA Conference, I will actually be doing a book signing, and the SoundTree booth will have plenty of copies on hand. If you already have a copy of the book I’d love to hear what you think of it. Now, on to the next project…
I have been working on a book about copyright for the past five years. For those of you who have attended my sessions about copyright, you probably remember my mentioning this fact and you may have even wondered - what ever became of it? I am proud to announce that it is finally finished, and will be published by Hal Leonard in early 2009 - perhaps even the beginning of January. It is titled The Teachers Guide to Music, Media & Copyright Law, and it is already available for pre-order on sites such as Amazon.com and Hal Leonard. I wrote it this past summer with the help of two editors - David Moser - a well-known expert on music copyright law, and my good friend Rob Cohen - who helped me make it a bit more readable. I am really looking forward to the book’s release and I am also anticipating speaking about the subject quite frequently in the future. It was a tremendous undertaking (especially when trying to work full time at SoundTree while writing it) and I am thrilled that it is so close to coming to fruition. A huge thank you to the folks at TI:ME for believing in the project and helping me get it published.
Once it comes out, there will be a companion site to the book located at www.copyrightbook.net. The site isn’t live yet, but with the rate of change in the copyright law, it should prove to be a valuable resource in keeping all of the information current. When you get a copy of the book, let m know what you think!
Powered by FireStats