YouTube user avoidantconsumer recently posted a mashup video that combines scenes from 80s brat pack movies with Phoenix's "Lisztomania". In the video's description section, she simply says, "this song just struck me as 80's movie-ish. so i made it happen."
The video quickly went viral and even got the attention of the people at Rolling Stone who then reported that Phoenix went on record to state that the unofficial mashup was "our best video". The video proved to be so popular that a "tribute to the tribute" quickly surfaced YouTube by way of user thepinkbismuth that plainly stated, "AvoidantConsumer made me want to make my own version of this."
To me, this is the beauty of the internet, epitomized. People everywhere are creating awesome things all the time, and the internet makes it possible for these amazing things to be shared, inspiring and encouraging others to create new incredible things of their own. However, traditional copyright law technically doesn't allow for fun videos like this to exist. It really is time for our intellectual property laws to be updated, don't you think?
[ Via: boingboing ]
Geoarg Argh said:
^^YEAH!
damn traditional copyright laws
regarding the beauty of the internet: I can always happen the other way around: E.g. Jerry C who wrote that catchy "Canon in D" guitar arrangement (that song from the "guitar" video, if you look up the "most viewed of all time" list on youtube) never got the exposure he deserved.
Instead, this "funtwo" guy, covered the song with Jerry C's tabs, put his sloppy cover up on youtube, got 60mill views and got to play with Joe Satriani during the Youtube Live Event.
Jerry C basically got screwed
So Idle said:
Awesome video that took me back down memory lane. This is truly the beauty of the internet in action. The sign of advanced culture is that it learns from all of those that have gone before it. It takes those bits from the past, remixes and improves it so that the result is new yet pays tribute to the past. The music industry had to grow to understand that sampling great music and producing a new sound was an art form in and of itself. The movie, television and even book industries need to grow up and realize that sometimes people just want to string climatic moments together to produce something spectacular. Kind of like this mash up.
Paul said:
Creative (and well executed) mashups like this would get far more respect from the original creators, which could then soften the sometimes black & white view that most people have about IP rights and the laws protecting them, if an active link, or well-placed text (at the very least) was made to the original work.
Say what you like about the power of mashups, and other sampling, to advance the creative expression of particular societies that are influenced by them, but the fact remains that without direct attribution to the original works (especially in the digital age where what is "new" today" is "old" 15 minutes from now) these pieces are simply riding the coattails of the original artist, and not "educating" or "advancing" a new artistic movement at all.
I do hope that, through Creative Commons-style efforts, artists can develop new forms of expressive works that truly build upon the work of others. But doing this in a gorilla way, like it is done in this video example, without direct attribution at least, or proper permission from the owner of the work, even though it is enjoyable, is not the way to proceed. It will continue the "us" vs "them" mentality that is so prevalent in the internet culture, and the young artists of today.
gannettguy said:
Hey Zadi, 01/09/2010
I have recently heard some commentators, struggling on how to refer to the current years, and in an article on which way to refer to this year. I thought I could offer something that, I don't know if it has been already out there or not, could be coined and immediately stolen like so many other things people come up with. I was just wondering if there could be some way to document my being the first to introduce the use of the way to say the current decades as the, "Two tens", the "Two twenties", etc. Aka as the 2tens or 2twenties, for the, "Twenty hundreds". Now that we are in them. Think you can help me out with that? I know since you are the rocket-starship, and cutting edge of new news-info, you would be the best to blast that out for common usage.
