Grade: B
Regardless of how you feel about it, copyright infringement is a huge issue for you and everyone you know. Every time you hoist sail on your laptop ship and head out to the sea of digital media, you risk a fine worth more than your first year’s tuition at Dalhousie.
Piracy (see previous nautical metaphor), is our generation’s biggest crime – unless you count “making Fergie famous” as a crime – which I do.
Piracy is something we all do. Every time you download the fourth season of Friends or a porn flick you were too embarrassed to go out and rent, you’re stealing someone else’s intellectual property. Someone owns the idea that Monica used to be fat and hasn’t learned to cope with it. Someone owns the idea that three chicks plus one dude with a ponytail equals your jean-cream fantasy. These things belong to someone else’s mind. If you don’t pay for them, you’re a criminal.
So, who really owns ideas? Why don’t they want to share them? How did Girl Talk get to be so awesome?
Brett Gaylor’s documentary, RIP: A Remix Manifesto, tries to answer all these questions. Subscribing to his own philosophy, some parts of Gaylor’s film are actually remixed by fans. Included is a chunk of rotoscoped Girl Talk footage and a sweet remix of Stephen Colbert telling you not to remix him. The result is a film that not only tackles the tough issues of copyright law on behalf of the little guy, but also is well crafted and visually stimulating.
The main focus of Gaylor’s battle with copyright law is remixing. Is sampling a crime? Is Girl Talk a low down, dirty delinquent or an innocent, innovative visionary? Ultimately, that’s up to you – and the courts – to decide. Gaylor paints a seriously leftist picture and you can’t help but fall in line with his views. Why should a single mother in Arizona be fined $235,000 for downloading a few songs by Gloria Estefan? So watch this movie if you want some cold hard facts about how the man is keeping you down and some cold hard facts about Walt Disney.
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