Everything is a Remix is an online, freely downloadable, four-part series of ten minute programmes produced by New York-based filmmaker Kirby Ferguson. Financed entirely by donations, the series sets out to demonstrate that works of art as diverse as the music of Led Zeppelin to the Star Wars film trilogy are based on borrowing and remixing the ideas of others. Moving through the series, Ferguson extends this argument persuasively to include the technological and scientific advancements of the past.
Ferguson discusses the impact of free market capitalism on creativity, and the development of copyright and patent law as a positive thing, allowing a period of exclusivity to enable researchers to recoup development costs. He moves on to suggest that because ‘everything is a remix’ it should concern everyone that large corporations are keen to extend the reach of copyright because, he contends, that companies who have used the work of others as the basis of their research or inspiration, are increasingly likely to use crippling intellectual property litigation that restrict future creativity. Finally, he concludes, this is to the detriment of society in general.
This is food for thought and stimulating discussion on the topic of copyright
Kirby Ferguson has spoken at Netflix, the GEL Conference, Creative Mornings NYC, The Cusp Conference, Media Evolution, The Creators Project, Campus Party Mexico City, AND Columbia University, NYU.
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