tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21353160.post5683940863050869997..comments2023-10-05T08:43:29.134-07:00Comments on {Good Work}: Remixology 101Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07453968311446077161noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21353160.post-18819850103695634402007-03-09T07:34:00.000-08:002007-03-09T07:34:00.000-08:00yum, hash zucchini...yum, hash zucchini...Kevin Ohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09290791010843622190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21353160.post-57019265995054112202007-03-08T19:04:00.000-08:002007-03-08T19:04:00.000-08:00As an avowed intellectual-property anarchist, I ca...As an avowed intellectual-property anarchist, I can say without a doubt that the kinds of ideas or images that you might be appropriating for your work fall under a much different category than someone downloading "The Complete Butthole Surfers" to listen to while smoking hash out of a zucchini in their dorm. While I agree wholeheartedly that your own work transcends any hint of infringement, intentional or otherwise, it does so by the originality of your own creations, and by your contributions to the ideas you've celebrated. <BR/><BR/>Let's not get carried away. Expanding this argument too far beyond its real value only dilutes the things you've accomplished through your own hard work and exposure to those who came before you. That is to say, <I>influence</I> is a great thing that exists independently from <I>theft</I>, and the nebulous realm of intellectual property as it stands today obviously has very little to do with either.<BR/><BR/>If there was nothing new under the sun when Bill Shakespeare was around, there sure as hell isn't much of a chance finding anything new today. It's when we go where the sun isn't--in those dark places where we have only our own voice and the incredible stuff we read 15 years ago--that we get to create something nobody's ever seen before.<BR/><BR/>Keep up the great work on the comic, but for Christ's sake don't keep your influences too close. Remember what happened to <A HREF="http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/hueylewisandthenews/articles/story/5932560/parker_sues_huey_lewis" REL="nofollow">Ray Parker Jr. and Huey Lewis</A> over that bass line for "Ghostbusters." I guess bustin' makes him feel good.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21353160.post-63557379407000654232007-03-08T13:08:00.000-08:002007-03-08T13:08:00.000-08:00I agree with Johnnie Lethem 100%. The whole idea o...I agree with Johnnie Lethem 100%. The whole idea of copyright is a 20th century construction - product of the industrial revolution no doubt.<BR/><BR/>The only question in my mind is whether the idea of copyright will outlive the totalitarian corporate capitalism that we're living under right now... it is Disney, after all, that's progressively extending copyright protections decade after decade, for the express purpose of keeping Mickey Mouse safe from vulgar appropriations.<BR/><BR/>But I think that Google and Apple see the writing on the wall - mp3s, youtube and online libraries are ultimately unstoppable forces - even the most massive corporation can't afford to sue thousands of poor college students.<BR/><BR/>You can only put so many heads on pikes on the city wall to "set an example" before the barbarian hordes overwhelm your brigades of lawyers and storm the gates anyway. The treasure being the content itself - which they have no moral right to anyway, since it's been plundered in distant conquests anyway.<BR/><BR/>(I'm not willing to try to extend that metaphor any further...)<BR/><BR/>I believe that examples of artists suffering greatly because their work has been appropriated are few and far between... and I'll take those odds, anyway, over my chances of being screwed in a "legitimate" deal by Viacom or Sony or Disney.<BR/><BR/>And anyway, every great artist has stolen and borrowed ideas. All of western literature, for starters, can be traced to the Greeks, the Bible, and Shakespeare.<BR/><BR/>So as far as I'm concerned, you should go right ahead and take what you need, pilgrim.Kevin Ohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09290791010843622190noreply@blogger.com