What with all the SOPAs and ACTAs and whatever else flying around trying to ruin the internet, it’s nice to see some sanity in the form of Kirby Ferguson‘s awesome series Everything Is A Remix—the final part, System Failure, has just been released and it’s a 15 minute whopper to end the series with a bang.In it, Ferguson looks at how the current laws that govern copyright are outmoded, outdated, and unable to govern what they aim to protect. He cites culture’s modus operandi of assimilating, copying, transforming, and combining (which these laws contradict), discussing the history of patent, copy, intellectual property law, and the hypocrisy that surrounds them.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.Watch the entire Everything Is A Remix series here. Ferguson’s next project is This is Not a Conspiracy Theory, which will be "a multi-part series that will explain the major ideas, events and human quirks that have shaped where we are right now politically, and he’s looking to fund it on Kickstarter.
FYI.
This story is over 5 years old.
Everything Is A Remix, Pt. IV: The Hypocrisy Of Intellectual Property Law
The final installment in Kirby Ferguson’s series is a voice of reason amongst the current crop of failed copyright bills.