Copyright Law Blog

This week in Gaming, Animation, and Web Design 2 (or G.A.W.D. 2) we learned about Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons. To learn about these subjects we watched a film called RiP: A Remix Manifesto. The film is a documentary about how bad copyright has gotten and what is considered copyrighted. It also covers the difference between public domain and copyright along with Fair Use. The Remix Manifesto is culture should always build on the past, the past always tries to control the future, our future is becoming less free, to build free society you must limit the control of the past.

When creating work that uses copyrighted material can cause problems. You can still create work using someone else’s properties. There are multiple ways to do it. One way is with Creative Commons, where the author says “you can use my work, but give the credit to me.” The other way to avoid copyright infringement is Fair Use. Fair Use allows to use copyrighted material with conditions.

I fall somewhere between Copy Right and Copy Left. I think if you are using someone else’s work for profit the original creators should at least get some of that profit seeing how that is their work you are using. Copyright has gotten out of control. Paying $220,000 just to make a mix is just unacceptable. I believe you should be able to use someone’s work free of charge but the second you go to make a profit off it a portion of the profit should go to it’s creator. Even if you had remixed it enough to where someone won’t know where you got the beats from you should still credit the artist.

Fair Use allows an anyone to use limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Early in my senior year I made a short stop-motion video with my friends Kaitlyn and Shane. In that video it featured TOHO Studio’s property Godzilla. The video was for a contest Vermont Entrepreneurship. Our video does fall under Fair Use. We are not seeking profit for the video, nor does the video have a significant impact on the Godzilla property. TOHO Studio’s would have no reason to prosecute us.

RiP: A Remix Manifesto was a good movie. I enjoyed it. It was interesting seeing how copyright works and how it affects people. I was also impressed with how it portrayed the history of copyright and how ranged from very early Disney lawsuits to Lars Ulrich Vs. Napster. My only problem with the film is it focuses a little too much on the DJ, Girl Talk. I do recommend this film to anyone who wants to know more about how copyright works.