Remix Culture Questions (Group 1)

1. When I hear "Remix Culture," I immediately think of the discussion we had in class last week about "Girl Talk" and how the deejay takes others songs and remixes them into his own. Remix culture could also be a culture where no content is original anymore, that everything (every sound, idea, logo, shape...) came from somewhere else first. This is definitely apparent in music and films, where I feel like I keep seeing the same story/chorus over and over again. How many remakes of classic movies and songs do we have to hear and see? That leads the question of is the remake even considered original work or will it always just be a remake? I assume this means that anyone is a producer and anyone is a consumer in our culture.

2. The biggest consequence of remix culture is that nothing is original anymore. The remixers are "technically" stealing work of others but not getting in trouble for it... So is nothing protected? What about those copyright laws we fight so hard for? Are you only a thief if you steal a tangible good? Music is created and lots of time is spent into making it so it should have the similar consequences.  Remix culture is even affecting innovation. If people are scared to create because they do not think that they will get the proper money or recognition for their work, then our society stops moving forward completely. But aren't we all innovators? Isn't that how great things are created  by building on something and making it even better? Every good idea had to start somewhere, can we copyright and protect every single inspiration?

IPR, Copyright/ Left, CC Questions (Group 12)

http://www.wipo.int/freepublications/en/intproperty/450/wipo_pub_450.pdf

1. When searching to make sure that no other trademarks are similar to the new proposal, what guidelines does the committee follow to make that decision? What justifies something being too similar or different?

I really like the line, "The progress and well-being of humanity rest on its capacity to create and invent new works in the areas of technology and culture..." This is an interesting perspective and I think it is so true. Without protection of ideas, no new products could ever be designed and created and without this creation, there would be no progress. The core idea of our society is to create and continue moving forward with new ideas and this can only happen with IPRs improving the quality of life. Nothing we take for granted such as movies and medicine, would exist without this system. Until this article, I had no idea how important this system really was.  I have this great idea for a new product, but clearly I can't post it online because someone will try to steal it and make it their own since it isn't patented. I like this though, because it protects from idea theft which can take away recognition or even money from the rightful owner. I also never thought about industrial designs being patented, I always assumed it was s free-for-all, so this was interesting news to me.