Sick Product of a Sick System

Sadly Over-hyped

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

A film examining the battle over remixing , mash ups and recycling. Its a film that makes its point early and often...and it raises a good many questions- but it doesn't always have answers- such as how much use is too much? The film seems to be saying that everything is fair game... or should be.Beyond the questions the film has deeper problems. Its mentions the change in copyright in 1998 but doesn't explain the old rules. The history before the internet is missing. A film that talks about using the past to build the future ignores the past completely.Then it gets facts wrong- dating Alice in Wonderland from 1644. and there are other problems...taking the film into questions of science...before dropping the whole train of thought.I'm kind of mixed on the film. I see the point and side with them but I think the director is going about it in the wrong way...he has too much going on... is this about remix or simply the free down of all things? I think his argument that the total free exchange of all things will save the world is kind of off kilter...and what will it say about anyone wanting to create- why create a character or book or song or such if you can't control it, even for a little while? After all the argument here is total free exchange.I'm at a loss.

I saw a version of this film that was 86 minutes in length. As the film itself asks the audience to remix it, I can't really know which version I actually saw.That, in fact, is one of the problems with the remix culture that was completely ignored by this documentary. How does identity or trademark get protected in the remix world? While it is of course impossible to prevent infringements from happening, there should be a reasonable response to violations, along the lines of libel and slander and fraud. I'm sure the people who use IMDb to read comments such as this one want some assurance that we're all talking about the same thing, or else what is the point? This is a much larger issue than just that of course.The other problem I had with this film is that it failed completely to address the elephant in the room, which is software, whether it's cracked, hacked, or open source. It kind of boggles the mind how you can actually use software in the production of a film about cut-and-paste culture, and miss it. I guess it doesn't have a Girl Talk beat, eh? (Jeez, isn't there anyone out there better than Girl Talk?)As some other comments have noted, the above two flaws, combined with the lack of any real proposal or at least a survey of ideas on how to proceed forward, mean this film can't really be a 9 or a 10, at least on my scale. There is such as thing as intellectual property, and the film itself notes that this has been recognized since the printing press, in the form of copyright. It's not going away, and saying "oh well, whatever" isn't enough.But I do give the film an 8, because it does a great job of showing the cancerous growth of the copyright and patent industry, which isolate us from our own public cultural experience, and stifle creativity and innovation by extending well beyond what was originally intended, to the point of making criminals of the world's youth, bankrupting everyday people, and putting sick people's lives at risk. I particularly found the revelation near the end, about the direction of US policy at the end of last century interesting and shocking. A country like Canada must do all we can to ensure that bad US decisions don't become our problem to be solved by giving away a chunk of our sovereignty. F that, my friends.I look forward to a followup that addresses the flaws of this film.

This documentary in general focuses around copyright, and the right to remix old music from other artists and it makes some very good points. You only have to look at YouTube to see for yourself; how many video's per day do you think get pulled because it contained some footage, music or sound (even when it concerns fan-art!) that is owned by some company? What started as a battle against copyright-thieves now evolved into a battle of control and money.Even Lars Ulrich from Metallica makes an appearance, in the form of an old interview concerning the whole Napster-debate which is hypocrite to say the least; tape-trading back in the day is what made Metallica so well known to begin with, so this is nothing more then a moneygrabbing issue from him.If you want to know more whats going on behind all the anti-piracy campaigns, then watch this. Its well worth the watch.

I feel the need to write this comment because it made me think about the copyrights on aids medicine for example. Some of the copyrights preventing the making of a cure to safe lives must lifted. Life is more important then the profits of corporations. This becomes a more gray area when they talking about the copyrights on music and this documentary isn't very objective in this matter. Which is a good thing. The anti-copy lobby isn't very objective as well. Nice to see the other side for a change! Making a copy of a CD and sell it is illegal. But buying a new CD in Holland cost € 50 for 12 songs in a poor quality plastic case. That's more then € 4 a song and you do not want to know how much the artist gets. The rules must be changed. Protection of property is good but evolving is even better. Restore the balance please!