Open Source, Free Culture

While criticism of open content and open source materials is not lacking, it seems like a net-positive movement towards a more democratized institution of knowledge and content sharing versus an institution of hoarding.
Foundationally, the open source mentality appears as generally beneficial to those who operate within its framework. One of the advantages of open source is that the positive results are in a way self-reproducing. If someone makes something better, they have to reintroduce it back into the system for the use of others. In a way, it seems as though innovation could effectively happen as people build upon one another’s work, innovation because of the desire for improvements for an entire community of people. Inevitably, the general public benefits from these developments as they start using the open source materials. Linux is a prime example of how those who do not know how to code software, have taken advantage of the open source materials for their own benefit. In a perfect world, free culture would be the ideal method of approaching these issues, however, it would seem that today, some rights may need to be restricted. Even under Creative Commons, some rights are reserved. While there are critiques of this licensure system, It is a step in the right direction when considering that people can still have some control over their material, while allowing for others to use it.
To a certain degree, the idea of copyright and intellectual property is becoming more obsolete in a digital culture. Considering the ever-forward-pushing model of progression and of online sharing, copyright and intellectual property seem to becoming less problematic. When someone can use bitTorrent as a means of sharing music, programs, and documents, the idea of copyright becomes blurry. With this in mind, I think that the effort to protect intellectual property is a battle that should not be fought valiantly. While this may appear to be a sort of resignation to the masses, the fact remains that the network that is the Internet is, in one way or another, infinite. To wage war against an invisible power like the Internet and its capacity for networking is not only naïve, it is hopeless, an unwinnable war.
Quite obviously, we have to consider the artist’s labor in dealing with the ideas of intellectual property and open source materials. At this point, I believe Creative Commons fits the bill in simultaneously protecting and liberating an artist. By reserving some rights and allowing for an artist’s work to be used, that artist can see the benefits of releasing work to the commons without giving up rights to that work. Considering that the artist can still make money off of the work in other spheres, the Creative Commons allows for, what appears to be, the best of both worlds: allowing use while not losing ownership.
One of the most popularly known examples of remixing is the work of Girl Talk. Greg Gilles is clearly reconfiguring materials that are identifiable in his work. From Michael Jackson to Biggie Smalls, Gilles is visibly remixing these sources to create a new work of original creation. Looking at Girl Talk’s concerts and his participation in popular music festivals like Coachella are obvious indicators as to the fact that his work has in some way bettered culture in general. Sadly, the risk associated for Girl Talk seems to be an ever-pressing concern as to whether or not he is pushing the boundaries of copyright and creative commons. In some way, his contribution to culture is at the risk of his livelihood.
Recently, I remixed parts of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory into a music track that featured a number of samples from numerous artists. I took the audio from a portion of the film where Willy Wonka states “ We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of the dreams”, repeated this phrase, then re-cut the statement to say “we make music, we make dreams, make music, make dreams”. This then led into a sound piece based off of the sampling of other musicians like El Ten Eleven, Blink 182, and Big L.
Ultimately, free culture and open source materials are liberating to those who would like to experience a democratized access to knowledge and information. In an age of sharing and technology that encourages such behavior, embracing this new mentality can result in a new approach to information, sharing, and generally, human interaction.