My reflection of RIP: A Remix Manifesto Part 2

The second part to the manifesto was, “The past always tries to control the future”. This holds true in many ways of our history, but the film RIP: A Remix Manifesto chooses to use the creator of Mickey Mouse as an example. Walt Disney had come up with an idea, one that is not original, but would soon be very profitable. This idea was to draw stories of mouse and share them with the world, except all the stories had already existed. His greatest works all stem from ideas in the past. Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi are all stories pre-existing Disney’s recreation of them. Disney updated older media and stories to create something new that better fit our time and culture. Therefore, Walt Disney and his company were very successful. The way that this relates to how the past always tries to control the future is with how Disney had decided to protect their creations. They placed copyright laws so that no one had the ability to draw or recreate their characters, especially mickey mouse. Disney has set up laws so that no one will ever be able to touch upon their stories. No one except for the creators at Disney will be able to expand upon their ideas.

The third point in the manifesto is “Our future is becoming less free”. Essentially with more laws in place on how media can be created, we are limiting our freedom of speech. Fair use only spreads so far. Towards the beginning of this films, the narrator stated that they could show and sample some of Girl Talk’s music to make a point, because of the right to freedom of speech. Later in the film the narrator was no longer able to present the audience with any more music outside of the public domain because his point had already been made. If such laws were to continue and to grow in the favor of profit, then our future will have no freedom in what we create. Similar to the way an author can cite texts from Shakespeare, film makers and music producers deserve the right to do the same in their formats. A difference should not exist between media that is read to media that is heard or watched. Earlier I mentioned that laws are being creating in favor of profit for a reason. These copyright laws are no longer benefiting those who create. It benefits the companies and businesses that own those creations. These corporations that hold the rights to the songs receive all the money while the actual producers do not receive any money.

The last line in the manifesto states “To build free societies you must limit the control of the past”. Originally copyright was created for balance to the authors and the consumers and it has now grown too far. To progress in life and as a society people must build of each other. Taking the idea of copyright into patents of knowledge for medicine opens a good topic of debate. If we put away these laws restricting knowledge from each other and just built upon the data and discoveries of anyone and everyone, both science and medicine would be advancing at a much higher right. Bringing the topic all the way back to the beginning, there is one line that stays true to the film RIP: A Remix Manifesto.

“Remix is not piracy, it is a creation”