So... what exactly are Copyright and Fair Use? Ever wonder?

Often working against the idea of remix is copyright. Copyright is a law that gives the original creator of a work the exclusive rights to reproduce that work, and determine who else may use and reproduce that work. Imagine that you work for hours on a paper for school and post it on Digital Dialogue. When you gather together as a class to critique each others' work, you find that other students in the class have taken parts of your paper and put them into their own paper, some changing it slightly, some using it word for word, but not citing your paper in any way. How would you feel? Most of us seem to agree situations such as this or plagiarism are wrong, so why do we often forget copyright?  Though these two things aren't exactly the same, they do both involve the same principles: using someone else's work--and legally protected work, in the case of copyright--without permission. So to hardcore copyright believers, remix is often an abomination.

The mediator between these two worlds is fair use. Fair use puts some restriction and limitation on the exclusivity of copyright, allowing for people to have a limited use on things that are copyrighted. This includes uses such as for news reporting, education, research, criticism, and other things. However, just because your use falls into one of these categories doesn't mean you're automatically given free-reigns to pull the fair use card. To fall under fair use, your purpose of using the content must match four categories: 1) Is it being used to make money or any other forms of business or not? 2) It sometimes depends on the kind of copyrighted material actually is. 3) How much/what portion of the work you're actually using. 4) How/how much your use of the copyrighted material will affect its value or how much the owner could potentially make on it.If your purpose checks out okay with all of these points, then you're most likely good to go. And as we discuss here and portray in our interactive remix of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, you can potentially use or remix certain materials for good, even educational purposes--even to educate about copyright.

Remixing theater: Skype theater

Part of what my initial focus was on this blog was showing the benefits of Skype, then later on my focus has become remix and copyright. Tying these two together, I have come to think of how remix can pertain not only to re-using or re-making content, but also remixing the media themselves. For example the media of  books is being remixed into e-books. In conjunction with this, I recently encountered another remixed media: Skype theater: http://www.tv2fyn.dk/article/383045?autoplay=1&video_id=57079
I know it's in Danish so there's probably not too many of you who can understand it, so I'll give the brief of it. So basically, there is a theater group in Denmark that is going to start showing their productions via Skype, allowing people to view and participate in the production from all over. The director even wants to include a webcam onstage showing the actor's perspective, as well as another camera backstage to help give the public a feel of what it's like to be a part of the production, not only a viewer. They're even reaching into the world of crowd sourcing, with discussion of including the public in the writing of the script. Like other forms of remix, this takes something old and traditional and applies modern digital culture to give it new life and make it more accessible to today's digital audience.

Why Does Remix Even Matter?

Remix is a way of giving new life to something old, just like Dr. Frankenstein gave new life to an old body. Beyond mere parody and entertainment, remix can be used to help give younger generations a greater appreciation for old classics, by presenting them in a way they can better relate to.

Another important issue surrounding remix is that of copyright. Originally copyright law was mainly exercised on large corporations, and its purpose was to protect creativity, not impede it. But today, copyright targets amateur artists as well, and could potentially hinder the world of remix. There are two ways this could go. The first one we refer to as "Read Only" in which a few elite are the creators and everyone else simply views it, as if in a museum. The second we refer to as "Read/Write," where people in general are actually encouraged to contribute to the creating process and add on to and develop off of other people's ideas.

This becomes a question important to our future generations as well, as to whether common everyday behavior (such as downloading music or attaching pictures from Google to a personal blog) will be considered "legal" or "criminal" behavior. In his book Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, asks, "How is it changing how [our kids] think about normal, right-thinking behavior? What does it mean to a society when a whole generation is raised as criminals?" 
 
Here we seek to find the balance between a democracy of creativity and participation while protecting the creative rights of others and preventing a generation of criminals. This is the topic of Fair Use. (more to come.)

Quotes for Final Scene

"I stepped fearfully in: the apartment was empty, and my bedroom was also freed from its hideous guest. . . . I became assured that my enemy had indeed fled."

"How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?"

"Alas! I had turned loose into the world a depraved wretch, whose delight was in carnage and misery."

One of these quotes, or a combination of them could be used to describe the final scene in which the monster escapes.

Quote for Scene 4

"It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet."

Potential quotes for scene 2 of our project

These are some potential quotes that we could use (or combine together) to serve as the text for the first part of scene two, before it switches to the graveyard scene:

"I delighted in investigating their causes. The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine. Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember."

"It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world."

"The next morning I delivered my letters of introduction and paid a visit to some of the principal professors. Chance—or rather the evil influence, the Angel of Destruction, which asserted omnipotent sway over me from the moment I turned my reluctant steps from my father's door—led me first to M. Krempe, professor of natural philosophy. He was an uncouth man, but deeply imbued in the secrets of his science. He asked me several questions concerning my progress in the different branches of science appertaining to natural philosophy. I replied carelessly, and partly in contempt, mentioned the names of my alchemists as the principal authors I had studied. The professor stared. "Have you," he said, "really spent your time in studying such nonsense?"I replied in the affirmative. "Every minute." "