Everything is a Remix (2010 Edition)

Everything is a Remix (2010 Edition)

2010, Technology  -   73 Comments
8.59
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Ratings: 8.59/10 from 68 users.

Everything is a Remix is produced by Kirby Ferguson, a New York-based filmmaker.

Ferguson examines modern attitudes toward intellectual property and how these attitudes rather counterintuitively stifle creativity rather than fostering it.

He illustrates the interconnectedness of our creations and how current laws and norms miss this essential truth.

"The hard truth is that most creations are worthless immediately. Most books, films, albums, computer applications, or whatever else are met with not just indifference but disuse.

They basically aren’t read, aren’t viewed, aren’t used. Of the lucky ones that find a modest audience, almost all of those fall into obscurity within a few decades.

Only a slim minority of works have commercial value after that and current copyright legislation is clearly written for this tiny group. Copyleft activists sometimes refer to this segment as the 'lottery winners'."

Directed by: Kirby Ferguson

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john ledbury
john ledbury
3 years ago

As the Roman poet said Nihil ex nihilo fit - nothing shall come of nothing. So obviously everything is a remix, if there were something completely original no one would recognise it!

jeremy
jeremy
5 years ago

If someones software is the same as yours and isnt challenged conceptually, I don't think it should be allowed but if there is a significant difference to it, I think it is fine.

DustUp
DustUp
6 years ago

There are in fact original ideas. There are also improvements to ideas. The US Patent and Trademark Office recognizes both.

How to distinguish plagiarism from a modified concept is much more difficult regarding Copyright.

Young people typically like free stuff because they don't have a ready or sufficient source of income to pay for the work or improvements to work by others, that they desire. Other age groups short on funds may be similar. Some of those with plenty of money to buy the work of others that they desire, may just be cheap and decide why pay if can get it for free.

Human Nature is to ECONOMIZE and not pay for things if you don't have to. While some humans recognize that those who develop things need to eat.

Follow the money or greed of those wanting the work of others for free. They are the new slave masters. This new breed of thieves don't even offer food and shelter to those they desire work without pay from.

They tried this concept in Russian farming. The masses or the elite benefiting from the work of the farmers, without commensurate pay. The store shelves went bare. When you eliminate the incentive to produce anything, there will be much less produced. Notions to the contrary are self serving greedy thieving gibberish.

Martin Palmgren
Martin Palmgren
10 years ago

However, intellectual property as well as the monetary system are human inventions or illusions if you like. You don't see any other creature using or respecting it.
As all other biological creature we have our birth rights to fulfil our basic needs with whatever nature has to offer. Money or ownership has nothing to do with it because it is just a system made up.
We are biological, not economical. Just seems like a lot of people have forgotten about that.
When it comes to our basic needs though, we need to stop confusing them with desires! Food, water, oxygen and shelter is all you need to live a happy life. Everything else is desires created by the market!

There is no way back once you've seen the truth!

Dorcu Mihai
Dorcu Mihai
11 years ago

We are the flawed copies of L.U.C.A. .The flaws appeared as a response to different types of environment. For me, as an architect, designer, the exchange of information is the only way to evolve professionally. The evolution can be good or bad . To avoid the bad direction, I need to have that x factor, that makes me good ( i hope that I am) in what I do. Sometimes trying to discover this X factor means a lot of work, that has to lead to financial compensation. I will share my way of thinking, my work up to the point where I will work for free just to see someone enjoying the fruits of my labor, but i will not sacrifice the well-being of my family.
I'm flawed, I know.

Bireddy
Bireddy
11 years ago

Even though i love your hard work & research behind these videos,you've ruined my opinion about Led Zeppelin.I dont care if they copied songs, atleast i love them for their selectivity

Adam Yost
Adam Yost
11 years ago

Have you heard of the book "Steal Like An Artist"?

Hesusa
Hesusa
11 years ago

Brilliant documentary. A must see!

B.b. Totten
B.b. Totten
12 years ago

Well put doc. Knowledge is inevitably disseminated through copying each other to some degree. Do I owe my mom a royalty payment every time I drive a car because she showed me how? As a musician, imitation is the highest form of flattery. And every bit of music I have ever heard was a harkening back to something. The earliest documented musical pieces were just prayers put to a melody, i.e. harkening back to divinity, or purity of spirit before sin, etc, etc, yada yada yada. The three elements or creation Kirby outlined are, for me, the only conceivable ways to create. It's how I learned to play drums, guitar, sing, and write. They are how I learned to chew with my mouth closed, sit up straight, speak clearly. Copy (my parents), Transform (their example into action), Combine (those experiences in my own mind to create my identity). It's what we do and we shouldn't have to pay for human nature.

John
John
12 years ago

This film promotes superficial, selfish, unethical, juvenile thinking.
Apparently it was made by a superficial, selfish, unethical, juvenile nitwit.
"I should be able to copy anything I want and try to make money off other peoples talent. Because I never bothered to get a good education, or learn a trade, or develop any useful or meaningful skills whatsoever, and never made any effort whatsoever to develop my own thinking, insight and intellectual skills and abilities, I should be able to mooch off the sweat, work, and intelligence of other people. And what's this word 'ethics' people keep speaking about -- what the hell does that mean anyway."

Chris Clyne
Chris Clyne
12 years ago

No new thing under the sun

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

Came across a fact document today, i thought i'd share it.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to congress in 1846
John F Kennedy was elected to congress in 1946
Lincoln was elected president in 1860
Kennedy was elected president in 1960
Both presidents were preoccupied by civil rights
Both presidents were killed a friday
Both presidents were shot in the head
Both presidents were killed by a southerner
Both presidents were succeeded by a southerner named Johnson
Andrew Johnson who succeeded Lincoln was born in 1808
Lyndon Johnson who succeeded Kennedy was born in 1908
John Wilkes Booth who assassinated Lincoln was born in 1839
Lee Harvey Oswald who assassinated Kennedy was born in 1939
Both men were known by their three names composed of 15 letters
Lincoln was killed in a theatre named Ford
Kennedy was killed in a Lincoln car made by Ford
Lincoln was assassinated in a theatre and his killer ran into a warehouse
Kennedy was assassinated from a warehouse and ran into a theatre
Booth and Oswald were killed before the court hearing
A week before Lincoln was killed he was in Monroe, Maryland
A week before Kennedy was killed he was with Marilyn Monroe
Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy
Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln

translated and not verified for accuracy.
Everything is a remix or a big coincidence
az

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

Even the word God has been in the remix for ever.
az

noconman
noconman
12 years ago

The greatest disappointment of growing old to me, has been the lack of anything really new. It's all been said and done a million times, and stolen or borrowed just as many. The cyclical patterns of life seems to have left out the one where we are all fair, honest, loving and concerned about anything but fame, fortune, power and the illusion that we alone are special and and above others. I guess, nothing will ever change. Same old song...same old dance. I wish I were young again and could feel the excitement of seeing or hearing something new.

KsDevil
KsDevil
12 years ago

Great. I can contine bring creative without fear of being sued because, they probably stole the ideas from someone else, too.

Rocky Racoon
Rocky Racoon
12 years ago

Everything is social and inter-related. Even an indivudual must do so within and through society. Now they are copyrighting nature simply for discovering it is there. Capitalism is a fraud.
RR

Joe
Joe
12 years ago

Thank you now I can point to this why I don't go to the movies. She always gets pissed when I walk out after and tell her which movies this scene was taken from. So at the end of the day..........life is bullshit Great ain't it :)

Tina Yuzilaitis
Tina Yuzilaitis
12 years ago

so true about movies these days...howls, no originality

BlackDog Aura
BlackDog Aura
12 years ago

remex is a latin word. it means rower, as in a boat.

Brandon Costa
Brandon Costa
12 years ago

Bravo, great doc!

For the record all comments on TDF are remixes.

Marc Marselje
Marc Marselje
12 years ago

I do not totally agree with the topic, just saw the first one. I have played in a band and without knowing it, you start writing riff's to later find out there in some songs you listen to yourself.

The (creative) mind works like this, you can never make something totally new you always use parts and bits you have picked up along the way and make something "new" from all of this. So a familiar bass line of a song is not a remixed thing, it’s more like an "inspiration"

A crap, later on the documentry it explains this :P

iPhone 5
iPhone 5
12 years ago

..doc about copying and sound on third part of the film was disabled because of copyrights :)

Nick Ajose
Nick Ajose
12 years ago

Fantastic documentary, watch and learn...

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

Copies are often done of French Films, ex: La femme Nikita and many others. Not long after the movie is made, the US remake it in English (of course) because people of the US* do not watch subtitled movie and there is no budget for dubbing such foreign films. ON the other hand the whole world gets to hear Angelina Jolie or Shawn Connery speak french with a borrowed voice.
*it is sometimes tricky not to use the popular term Americans, i consider all inhabitants of the Americas the right to be named Americans.
az

Noah York
Noah York
12 years ago

thank you for spotting the obvious.

wald0
wald0
12 years ago

Great doc. that made some very valid points about a subject often misunderstood. Intellectual property rights have always seemed odd to me as a science major and now a chemist working on a geology degree. (Yes I started another degree, I can't stop.. learning is addictive) In science the free and open sharing of information is crucial, we want people to build on our discoveries and ideas, to benefit from them in anyway they can, whether it be financial or physical. Once profit motivation enters the picture everything it touches is ruined. This is true of art, science, politics, sports, etc.

I have never seen profit motivation improve anything in fact. It is claimed to do so in capitalism, but it doesn't. The argument is that people will buy the best quality product at the best possible price, and that this financial version of natural selection will weed out the sub-par products and crooked vendors. This would seem logical, but people are not logical. They do not always buy the best quality product at the best possible price, even when it is available to them. Instead they are motivated by all kinds of complicated psychological processes, easily manipulated by advertisments, taken by all kinds of marketing techniques- and the end result is that profit motivation kills quality, fosters an environment of deception and manipulation, and rewards people for turning a blind eye to their brothers need- while it destroys the environment.

While I do not pretend to completely buy resourced based economics, or to understand how we would get there from here- it sure is starting to look good. Imagine a world were when we created something we would have no reason to want to own it, or to want to own anything for that matter. You say I am a dreamer, well I am not the only one. I hope someday you will join us...

I hope I don't get sued for using that line- who owns the rights to Lennon's solo work now days?

Vinicius Santos Rodrigues
Vinicius Santos Rodrigues
12 years ago

good doc.

Coleman R
Coleman R
12 years ago

None of what this guy says has any merit. Leave this dumbass docu-whine alone.

Coleman R
Coleman R
12 years ago

William Burroughs didn't coin the term "heavy metal". The song "Born to be Wild" coined the term. I turned it off immediately after this HUGE mistake.

Jack_Burton
Jack_Burton
12 years ago

Very good.... There is no such thing as "intellectual property". Unless you keep it to your self.

Keeper Coach
Keeper Coach
12 years ago

IS this a documentary or an advertisement for some dudes website and to scam donations? brutal.

fonbindelhofas
fonbindelhofas
12 years ago

Awesome doc!

dewflirt
dewflirt
12 years ago

Sweet dreams all x

Simple Simon says
Simple Simon says
12 years ago

cant stand the begging bit at the end of each part, so wont watch any more.

dewflirt
dewflirt
12 years ago

This was great. My craft is the sum total of my influences, suits me fine. Hopefully that means I will never run out of ideas.
Liked the music part, reminded me of the Gypsy Rover song and all its other names, Blackjack Davey etc. A strange idea to own music or art, they are made to be shared.

bbga
bbga
12 years ago

VERY WELL DONE and extremely informative. I teach a civics course. I'm going to find a way of incorporating this into a lesson plan.

beedahosen
beedahosen
12 years ago

well done Kirby........I really enjoyed this doc
I heard once that there is only one original song in history, and every song since has copied and added there own touch

avd420
avd420
12 years ago

The idea of intellectual property doesn't seem bad to ANYONE who has created a piece of art.

PaulGloor
PaulGloor
12 years ago

True to his assessment on building creativity, his installments in this series get better as he goes. Truly, everything we see today is a mishmash of pillar concepts and technologies from the few who have a serious 'eureka' moment. The future was invented decades, even centuries ago.

Sieben Stern
Sieben Stern
12 years ago

AAAH and mac's still have one buttons on their mice! XD I have to use them at my school and they're annoying!

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

email note sent to Kirby:

3 things

Hip Hip Hip Hourra!

You belong on TED TALKS

I am one of the commenters on TDF, topdocumentaryfilms dot com,do come and visit, would love to have your comment. Your doc is the new addition this morning, wait at least a day so people get to watch it.

Oh...4th thing

thank you!

az

lakhotason
lakhotason
12 years ago

And the main entity pushing the copyright agenda. The Disney Corp. All this for a friggin cartoon mouse.

Mercenarry ForHire
Mercenarry ForHire
12 years ago

Don't tell people theres no new ideas anymore <.< or they wont buy them and the economy will collapse.
Thats the down side of faster information... nothing is ever unsaid or unseen.