I really enjoyed watching RiP!: A Remix Manifesto, because I feel like it’s not often to hear a refreshing point of view on open source legality and copyright law in the age of the internet. Even before seeing this documentary, I have had a longstanding issue with current copyright laws and how easily they are abused by moneymakers and people in positions of power. 

Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers offered a similar commentary on the role of the internet in the existing legal frameworks of copyright in one of his videos (which, ironically, has now been taken down by YouTube). In the sense that RiP mentions Brazil’s current industry of remixing music, I find that the internet in general has offered a platform for widespread creativity that wasn’t possible before. 

I understand the value of copyright in its barest form: allowing someone who creates something to have a legal say over it. But the way that copyright exists now, wherein George Lucas has copyrighted the Star Wars franchise for the next 100 years, is simply unfeasible. Hank discussed in his video that, had Lucas not been able to manipulate copyright laws that would outlive him, but instead allowed his franchise to become free public property a few years ago, it would have given people the legal opportunity to take that franchise and make their own changes to it. We could have seen an Episode I of Star Wars that didn’t have Jar-Jar Binks and wasn’t about trade regulation. We could have actually had a good movie. 

(On a side note, Hank’s recent video on the ownership of ideas is totally worth watching. DFTBA, everyone.)