Life is One Great Big Re-mix

Not going to lie, I felt pretty bad for Lawrence Lessig as he tried to get across his points on Copy Right Law being out of date during his interview on the Colbert show. Colbert of course had no problem playing “devil’s advocate” because it seemed a bit ridiculous to make an issue out of but that was Lessig’s point. Lessig explained that Copy Right laws are incriminating 70 percent of teens. I’m totally apart of the 70 percent and you probably are as well. I completely agreed with Lessig as he explained that the law should be focused on more important issues. Unless someone is completely stealing my work and taking credit for it, I would want them to use it as a source of inspiration. When I took a college painting class I couldn’t help but question why we would have assignments to paint and re-create an original piece of artwork from a famous artist. I learned that we were doing this, not to steal ideas and to copy, but to honor the artist. I don’t think we should abolish the copyright laws completely but, as Lessig was getting at, rethink the strictness of them as to keep up with the current times. All the remixes that were created as spin offs of the original interview are, in my opinion, completely okay to do. They were funny and if Colbert ever tried to sue anybody under copyright laws (which legally he may be able to do, but obviously wouldn’t) it would be ridiculous. I guess that was the point of it all though. I really enjoyed watching the Ted Talk given Kirby Ferguson who fully supports remixes. He believes that “everything is a remix and that this is a better way to conceive of creativity”. He makes a great example out of the legendary Bob Dylan. He gave evidence to support that two thirds of his songs were “borrowed”. This was really eye opening to me and made me look at the bigger picture. Nobody today would look at Bob Dylan as being a thief I don’t think. I look at him as a unique individual producing music that no one could compete with people because he has his only style and his music speaks for itself. He simply gathered inspiration from previous artists he’s heard throughout the years and made it completely his own. I mean it’s okay for a painter to incorporate splatter paint into their painting without getting accused of copying the legendary Jackson Pollock. Everything has already been done already if you want to be picky about it!