Prior to the Girl Talk documentary, we discussed, as a
class, the concept of fair use and transformative use within intellectual
property. I found it interesting that fair use is a subset of free speech that
allows for reproduction of material under critical comment and parodies. My
first impression of Girl Talk was that the music was not my style but I can
understand why people want to hear all their favorite songs mixed together. As
a musician, I feel that artists must have some protections in order to make a
living, however, we can see that record labels are the middle man between
artists and society, therefore destroying the artists pay.
I think that the documentary has a point, such in the case
of Radiohead, that music should be controlled by the people who make it and
there should be shorter copyright rights in order to push forth creativity and
innovation. It’s very disheartening to think that bio-medical research
innovation cannot push forth due to its own field’s copyright restrictions. In
the case of music, film, and other types of art, we should be able to
collaborate and explore new possibilities. We can see that the status quo right
now is not solving for this matter and rather pushing people to work around the
system or to accept unreasonable penalties.
It is true, “the past always tries to control the future.”
Hell, the KKK wanted to control the future, Hitler wanted to control the
future, Kim Jong-Un wants to control the future, and they all failed or are
failing at it. There are innumerable instances of failed attempts to control by
our government in our history. These are signs we need to change. Life plus
seventy years for a copyright sounds more like a jail sentence than a
government regulation for the betterment of artists; not surprisingly, that’s
how it basically functions; it takes creativity and locks it up continuously in
order to control the minds of society and does this by controlling their
pockets. This abusive relationship with society and government needs to stop. I
say, thank god for the people who have risked everything for these types of
films because these messages are the only way to really check government and
big corporation’s actions.
I agree with you about the government's control over fair use. When I was writing my response I was conflicted by wanting to protect the original artists of music and wanting artists like Girl Talk to be able to practice their free speech through music. I think that for now a good compromise would be to have a reasonable price for music that will be used as an instrument. Girl Talk's work in a lot of ways sound nothing like the original. As I talked about in my own post, as long as it is different enough from the original and cites the original creators, I think what Girls Talk and other artists are doing should be legal.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your thoughts you expressed in your last paragraph, and I like how you pulled in the quote "the past always tries to control the future" from the documentary. It is so true that there is an abusive relationship between society and the government. They try so hard to control everything we do and now even to the point of our creative expressions. Making art should be encouraged not feared. Using previous creations in order to make something new and improved in the future is how society grows.
ReplyDeleteYeah, laissez-faire government seems best for creativity. I'm a little anti-government biased tho! Hahaha
DeleteOne good thing we are seeing in the music industry now is the huge influx of large name independent artists. I think that if these artists can pave a way for others to get discovered under the major label radar then the music industry will change in a positive way. All in all, I think Girl Talk's music is not original, but I also disagree with the ways and practices of the music industry. It's a catch 22 sadly.
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